Created: Friday, 31 May 2013 08:51

MADAIN, IRAQ—The Arch of Ctesiphon, the world’s largest brick-built arch and a major tourist attraction, will be restored by a Czech company. Last year, heavy rains caused a large slab of the arch, built in 540 A.D. as part of a palace complex, to fall. The area is currently surrounded by concertina wire and cement walls, and is closed to visitors. “We need good infrastructure here to reopen this place for all the people, and inshallah (God willing), that will be done as soon as possible,” said Liwaa Smaisim, Iraq’s tourism and antiquities minister.