00:04At the center of our world lies the Middle East, and at its very heart the ancient land which is
00:10Iraq.
00:12Two great rivers span its length, the Tigris and Euphrates.
00:16In the plain, made rich and fertile by their waters, the earliest civilizations known to man were born.
00:23Out of this ancient heritage, the citizens of one of the world's youngest nations are building a new life and
00:31a modern state.
00:34Ageless Iraq is no longer a remote, isolated country. Today she is a main junction linking the East and West.
01:00Her capital is Baghdad, a name that conjures up all the romance of Harun al-Rashid and the Arabian Nights
01:07of a thousand years ago, when this was the fabulous capital of the Islamic world.
01:16The tempo of an age-old way of life contrasts with the swifter rhythm of the new.
01:29The 20th century has come to Baghdad, with steel and concrete, with shining cars and wide streets.
01:42But the people of Iraq hold on to the best of their old traditions.
01:47In the bazaars, you can see and hear them carrying on the art and exquisite craftsmanship that has been their
01:54pride for hundreds of years.
01:56Two thousand years before Christ, the world's first code of justice was laid down in the halls of Babylon.
02:04Today, in Baghdad, a modern police force upholds the laws of a sovereign state.
02:10Today, the streets of the city are alive with the bustle of a young people who are taking back from
02:15the West the means to a brighter future.
02:18And in their enjoyment of sport, the same is true.
02:23And now, in the 20th century, the sport of kings has come into its own in Baghdad and how the
02:29people love it.
02:31In Iraq, as in every land, the housewife's work is never done.
02:35For their husbands, the days work over, there is time to sip a glass of tea and talk of what
02:41the future holds in store for them and their children.
02:45Today, the modern port of Basra is Iraq's waterway to the world.
02:50Ships laden with the goods of the New Age sail out from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and
02:56the Far Orient.
02:57And the skies over Basra are thronged with the traffic of the air.
03:01And yet, within a few minutes flying time of Basra is a strangely different world.
03:08You're back in another age.
03:10Here, amid lakes and marshes, water has created a way of life all its own.
03:16A way of life well suited to these strange surroundings.
03:20And at the same time, a living reminder of that remote past when men settled by these waters to found
03:26the first great cities known to man.
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