>A few miles from the bridge to the south lie the ruins of the
>ancient city of Ur, founded 8,000 years ago, the birth place of
>Abraham and a flourishing metropolis at a time when the inhabitants
>of north-west Europe were still walking round in animal skins.
>
>Sgt Sprague, from White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia, passed it
>on his way north, but he never knew it was there.
>
>"I've been all the way through this desert from Basra to here and I
>ain't seen one shopping mall or fast food restaurant," he said.
>"These people got nothing. Even in a little town like ours of twenty
>five hundred people you got a McDonald's at one end and a Hardee's
>at the other."