You don't need to invent fantasy worlds. This picture is a settlement of Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq. Unfortunately big ones like this no longer exist. The photograph was taken in 1974, two decades before Saddam Hussein devastated the region in retaliation for an uprising.
A closer look shows the distinctive architectural style. The huts are made of reeds and whatever other materials can be scavenged. They've probably been made like this for 5000 years, but reeds rot, so the archaeology is sketchy.
Marsh Arab reed architecture can be astonishingly elaborate. Sometimes the houses are built on islands in the marshes. Sometimes they build their own island, and the houses float! While it looks exquisite, living on these things is hard. Sewage systems are as basic as you would imagine, and connecting to the electrical grid is impossible.
The Arabs who have been resettling the area since Saddam’s downfall are doing things a little differently. They're building new homes on 43 man-made islands close to roads for amenities. One of them will have a school and water filtration plant. Power is still an issue, but portable generators could provide a partial solution. Solar would be great, but the cost is probably prohibitive.
Unfortunately, the current wave of settlers are fighting against the tide. This way of life has been disappearing for decades, and not just because of Saddam’s campaign of terror. The marshes lie between the Tigris and the Euphrates (nr Basrah on this map), and dams and irrigation projects as far upriver as Turkey have reduced the flow of fresh water. This alters the salinity of the marshes, which in turn affects the wildlife the marsh dwellers depend on.
Today the great rivers pass through 34 dams before they reach the sea.
But there is hope. An Iraqi American engineer, Azzam Alwash, has started a hugely ambitious project to restore the wetlands. The reed architecture is low-cost, sustainable, and the old people with the skills are still around. Peace might still give them a chance to rebuild. Forty-three man-made islands could be the beginning of something remarkable.
It would be fitting for this special place to get a second chance. In Babylonian mythology, the marshes were a place of creation and new life. All life on earth was the product of a union between Apsu (the river spirit) and Tiamat (Goddess of the seas). In a poetic sense, the myth reflects reality.
The great rivers that were the cradle of human civilization, the Tigris and the Euphrates, carry nutrient-rich sediments to the sea, providing the first link in the food-chain. Here, in these marshes, is where salt water meets fresh, and new life begins.