Samarra

Sāmarrā (Arabic: سامراء) is a town in Iraq. It is on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad Din Governorate, 125 km north of Baghdad. In 2003, the town had an estimated population of 348,700 people. Samarra is a city of culture and heritage. Samarra is home to the Malwiya Mosque Minerat. In 836 CE, the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim founded a new capital at the banks of the Tigris. Here he built extensive palace complexes surrounded by garrison settlements for his guards, mostly drawn from Central Asia and Iran (most famously the Turks).