Qantaret Harba Bridge - Samarra - Iraq

Qantaret Harba Bridge

• Qantaret Harba is a bridge located in the vicinity of Balad's rail station, a city ninety kilometers north to Baghdad.

• It lies on the main road connecting Baghdad to Samarra and Tikrit.

• The bridge was named after the town of Harba that lies to its southwest.

• It was built in 1228 at the beginning of the caliph Al- Mustansir's reign as part of the irrigation project implemented to provide the neighboring ton and villages with water after a sudden change of the Tigris river course.

• It bridges the Dujail canal.

• The bridge is built with burnt bricks and topped by the same material laid in a fish scale pattern. 

• It is supported on four arches alternating three niches measuring 1.5 meters each.

• The two side arches measure 5.5 meters while the central ones measure 5.8 meters.

• Overall, the bridge is 54 meters long and 11.8 meters wide.

•  The three arches now buried in the earth are as high as their springer while one of the two in the middle remains uncovered and is the only way the Dujail canal flows from time to time.

• The bridge is mostly known for its inscription running above the arches to a length one of the hundred meters on each side. 

•  It is made of pieces of brick in the ala Gaza technique, meaning rotating, where the edges of the project are large enough to face the problem.

• This technique of cutting and hewing bricks is very different from the traditional carving method. 

• The inscription on the bank is similarly made of pieces adorned with geometrical patterns and is framed from above and below with three bands of burnt bricks cut in the same way.

• The inscription content praises Al-Mustansir for his irrigation activities, and for the bridge that connected both banks.

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