Iraqi pre-Islamic landmark threatening to collapse
The pre-Islamic Taq Kasr monument is suffering from neglect and is in dire need of maintenance.
BAGHDAD — Taq Kasra, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Baghdad, is different from many other sites and monuments that date to the pre-Islamic era in Iraq. Unlike them, Taq Kasra has a place in Islam’s culture and heritage because of events there during the advent of the religion in the early seventh century.
This great palace of Taq Kasra was built in the ancient city of Ctesiphon (al-Madaein) during the Persian Sasanian Empire (A.D. 224-651). According to religious tradition, on the night of the Prophet Muhammad's birth, the Taq Kasra shook and its walls cracked, leading Muslims to consider the event a divine prophecy of the emergence of Islam and therefore a sacred place.
