Tossup

This modern-day country contains the giant stone arch Taq Kasra near the riverside town of Salman Pak. This is the southernmost country the Great Zab river flows through as it passes near the Neanderthal site Shanidar Cave. This is the westernmost country in which mashoof canoes are used by Ahwaris or Marsh Arabs, who were targeted (10[1])by this country’s minority Sunni government in the 1990s. (10[1])In this modern-day country, a river supposedly ran black with ink after a Mongol (10[1])attack (10[1])destroyed the “House (10[1])of Wisdom.” (10[4]-5[1])This country’s city of Basra is (10[1])located (10[1])near the Shatt al-Arab’s mouth on the Persian Gulf. (10[1])For 10 points, the Tigris flows through what country’s capital of Baghdad? ■END■

ANSWER: Iraq [or Republic of Iraq; or Jumhūriyyat-al-‘Irāq]
<Cambridge B, Geography>
= Average correct buzz position

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