article_snippet: In Iraq, the past is glorious and long.
article_snippet: This is where world's first cities were built and where writing and organized government were first developed more than 5,000 years ago.
article_snippet: This is the land that gave world world first great literary work -- the Epic of Gilgamesh, king of the city of Uruk -- over 1,000 years before Homer, and over 2,000 years before Christ.
article_snippet: Ancient Mesopotamia, modern Iraq, is at the heart of the human story: home of the first cities, states and empires.
article_snippet: The law Code of Hammurabi, king of Babylon over 3,700 years ago, is the first great legal text of the world; it begins a heritage leading to Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights.
article_snippet: a heritage leading to Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights is our heritage, too.