Protection and Management of the Destroyed Heritage in the Old City of Mosul, Northern Iraq

Abstract

Mosul has been freed from the clutches of terrorists since 2018, yet the city remains in serious need of reconstruction and redevelopment. The current study attempts to determine whether the fragments of damaged structures can be used in the reconstruction of the old city of Mosul, as well as its economic, cultural, and civilizational feasibility. Old-heritage materials have been categorized into four primary categories, which can be used to avoid confusion while disposing of them. The first category includes antique art elements such as struts, gypsum arches, door frames, and windows, the majority of which were less than 200 years old. The second category included items that were more than 200 years old and were discovered in a few locations, including the Great Mosque of Al-Nuri and the Al-Tahera Church. The third category consists of irregularly shaped stone building materials that were extensively employed in the construction of home walls and ceilings and have survived their engineering characteristics for decades. There are two primary types of stone building materials: limestone and gypsum stone. Finally, plaster, a once-common binder, produced enormous quantities of recyclable materials as well as the new mortar that might be utilized in rebuilding. These significant old-heritage materials went unnoticed and were handled haphazardly. Many of them were removed by massive bulldozers, resulting in the dilemma of their destruction and the search for places to discard them. Recycling these old-heritage materials, according to the study, will help to preserve the irreplaceable artifacts embossed with magnificent ornamentation, sketches, and inscriptions. Obtaining antiquities buried beneath these structures that could be 800 years old or older. Taking advantage of low-cost, high-economic-feasibility building materials and abandoning the idea of destroying and discarding them, which costs a lot of money and pollutes the environment. The geotechnical assessment of categories 1, 3, and 4 revealed that they are recyclable. Category 1 showed that the percentage of damage caused by nature does not exceed 1% and 7% as a result of the war. In categories 3 and 4, the proportion of natural damage caused by weathering does not exceed 1%, while the percentage of natural damage caused by war does not exceed 3%.