Diyala

Diyala begins where Baghdad's edge gives way to orchards. Follow the Diyala river northeast and the road runs between citrus and date groves; in late winter the orange blossom around Baqubah, the provincial capital, is heavy enough to smell through a closed car window. Further east, near the Iranian border, Khanaqin sits on the Alwand river, where a stone bridge of a dozen low arches — Sassanid in origin, rebuilt in the 1850s — still carries traffic over green water, with a blue-domed mosque behind it. This is mixed country: Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen, with Kurdish and Arabic both spoken in the same market. The archaeology is quieter than the south. At Tell Asmar, ancient Eshnunna, Henri Frankfort's team dug up the Square Temple statues with their enormous inlaid eyes in the 1930s; the mound itself is low and bare, and the finest figures now stand in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, so see them there. Expect long drives and many checkpoints; come October to April.