The castle of the Kesra Arch is place of interest for the tourists who come to visit Iraq.
The castle lies to the south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad at 30 kms far from Baghdad center in the Qastfewn city in al-Mada'an region in the Province of al-Waaset. It was was famous as Salman Bak to Iraqi citizens. The name itself was derived from the name of Salman al-Farisi (the Persian), a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, who is buried there.
This ancient place and arch are considered as the largest hall in the Kesra castle. It is covered with bricks. An account of the Battle of Antioch (Arabic, Antakiyyah) between the Persian and Roman armies have been inscribed on its walls.
Some of Muslims held that ancient Persia had a fireplace that was never extinguished for over 1.000 years until the Prophet Muhammad was born. Since then that fire was never lit. Then the the big wall opened wide. The people of that time considered those events as miracles. You can see the monuments of the arch and the great opening onthe wall after over 1,000 years.
Ashtar al-Barzanji, the supervisor of the Iraqi tourism affairs said that the place of the Kesra Arch includes tablets in the Syriac language which was spoken by Iraqi people then. The place includes many churches, some of which are considered as the capital of Christianity in Iraq
