Annah

Annah was a small town on the river Euphrates in North-West Iraq, close to the Syrian borders, now historical. The town was about 18Km long and 1.5Km wideFact|date=April 2007 based in the valley between the river on one side and the plateau to the other. The town, according to various history books, was created by a King who named it after his daughter "Annat" more than 4000 years agoFact|date=April 2007. The town had many small districts such as "Sheri'a", "Bab Al-gharbi" and "Assarai". Because the town was on the river bank, its land was very fertile and had many orchards full of citrus, figs, date palms, pear trees as well as seasonal plantation. The weather was very pleasant in summer and quite cold in winter with occasional snow in December and JanuaryFact|date=April 2007. The traditional method of irrigation in the town was by Na'oor which is a big wooden wheel spun around by the force of the river's current and has many cans attached to it that scoop the water from the river and spill over to a narrow canal in order to distribute it to the plots.

During the 1970s, the Iraqi government decided to build Haditha Dam about 80Km east of Annah in order to conserve the river waters for the drought season in the summer. The dam was completed around 1982-84 and the watar started to rise gradually, with many small villages becoming submerged under the water, including Annah. People had to leave to a newly built town named "Annah Aljadidah", or simply New Annah, leaving behind their homes, orchards and a long and rich history. The minarat had to be sliced into 6 or 8 pieces in order to move it to the new town but unfortunately, it sustained massive damage during the fighting between insurgents and the US army during 2006.