Swirling desert sands lead to the ancient rose-coloured temple mound of Ur in south Iraq, a Sumerian city which has survived century upon century of turmoil.
Within a few weeks Ur could find itself in the midst of a hi-tech modern war, as United States tanks and troops roll by and laser-guided missiles streak overhead in an invasion of Iraq.
The United States is massing troops in the Gulf ahead of a possible war over weapons of mass destruction it says President Saddam Hussein is hiding, and experts say that puts Iraq's wealth of ancient treasures at more risk.
Kuwait, from where a US attack could be launched, is barely 100km to the south over flat desert from this 4 000-year-old city which in Jewish, Christian and Muslim tradition was the birthplace of the biblical patriarch Abraham.
An Iraqi excavation team which began work here in 1999 has apparently quit the site, leaving soldiers from a series of military installations around it and the odd Asian tour group the only figures on the horizon.
"This is a place of civilisation, not war," said site guard Dayef Mohsen, pointing to a series of holes on the outer wall of the temple, or ziggurat, which he explained were caused by shrapnel from bombs dropped by US planes during the 1991 Gulf War.
Preparations have been made to protect priceless museum collections from looting and bombing that saw the theft of about 4 000 pieces in 1991, said Nawala al-Mutawalli, a Sumerian language expert at Baghdad's Iraq Museum.
If there is another war, "we'll take all the items and pack them away again, as much as we can", she said.
The Iraq Museum, with its priceless collection from Iraq's Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic eras, was damaged during the bombing of a neighbouring telephone exchange.
Most of its stunning statues and wall reliefs from the Babylonian and Assyrian era will have to stay put because of their size and make do with special covers, said Mutawalli.
Objects removed before the 1991 war to museums in outlying areas were stolen by Iraqis during the chaos of defeat and a popular uprising in the south.
The theft has continued since then, said Mutawalli.
Assyrian sculptures from ancient Nineveh and Nimrud around Mosul appeared on the international antiquities market during the 1990s.
About four years ago, locals sneaked into the site of another Assyrian city and broke the head of a huge part-man- part-beast wall sculpture into 13 pieces for smuggling, before local police caught them, said Mutawalli.
The head now sits in pieces on the floor of one of the Iraq Museum's display rooms.
For Iraqis, it is the latest chapter in a long history of theft of their heritage, and many suspect senior officials.
War is the last thing Iraq needs in its fight to protect its history, said Mutawalli.
"America believes in civilisation so it should stop these acts against the Iraqi people," she said. - Reuters