HOUSING AND SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE MARSHES OF SOUTHERN IRAQ
he research aims to study the settlement and urban reality in the marshes of southern Iraq, which is represented in the houses of reeds, which is a Sumerian legacy dating back to the year 4000 BC, and it has a unique architectural form constructed from the reeds, and the people of the marshes have been able to take advantage of cheap natural resources to build their homes, such as reeds available in abundance in Their environment, and the research problem is represented by a question: What are the factors that affected settlement and urbanism in the marshes of southern Iraq? The researcher assumes that the settlement in the marshes of southern Iraq was subject to human and natural factors that gave it its current form, and that the houses in the marshes embody the Sumerian civilization and have various geographical indications, including geographical, social and religious indications.. The descriptive-analytical method was adopted and the study was strengthened with a set of pictures and maps showing the location of the study area and the nature of urbanism.It has been found from the research that settlement in the marshes takes multiple patterns according to natural and human factors, and that the houses made of reeds are rooted in the Sumerian civilization, which is one of the pillars of the culture of the marsh inhabitants, and similar inscriptions of these hosts were found in the historic city of Ur on the number of clay and cylindrical seals dating back Its history is more than 3000 years, and the Sumerians were able to design housing according to specific engineering methods, taking advantage of the nature and geography of the region, as they are all built in a direction from northwest to southeast, because the winds there are often north-west, and religious aspects have also been taken into account On those hosts.
Keywords: Houses of Reeds, Settlement, The Marshes.