Wounded Tigris: A River Journey with Leon McCarron at Stanfords

About

Join writer and explorer Leon McCarron for a river journey through the cradle of civilisation.

The river Tigris - the birthplace of civilisation - is in danger. It has been the lifeblood of ancient Mesopotamia and modern Iraq, but geopolitics and climate change have left it at risk of becoming uninhabitable.

In 2021, the award-winning writer, broadcaster, and explorer, Leon McCarron travelled by boat along the full length of the Tigris River. At times dangerous, this is a journey of discovery, of incredible history and landscape, of changing environment, and shared stories by those who live along the river, supported with beautiful photography.

From the source, where Assyrian kings had their images carved into stone, McCarron and his small team journeyed through the Turkish mountains, across north-east Syria and into the heart of Iraq. Passing by historic cities like Diyarbakir, Mosul and Baghdad, McCarron kept the company of fishermen and farmers, but also artists, activists and archaeologists who rely on the flow of the river. Occasionally harassed by militias, often helped by soldiers, McCarron rode his luck in areas still troubled by ISIS and relied on the generosity of a network of strangers to reach the Persian Gulf.

Tickets
£5 (Ticket price includes a glass of wine or soft drink and is redeemable against the published price of Wounded Tigris)

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'A journey through both time and ecological crisis: as epic as it is engaging' - Tom Holland, historian, writer, and co-presenter of The Rest is History

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Leon McCarron is an award-winning writer, broadcaster, and explorer from Northern Ireland. A TedX speaker, Leon is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

He has written for National Geographic, Noema, New Scientist, Smithsonian, the BBC, The Guardian, The Sunday Times , The Times and The Telegraph, and has won numerous awards. The Society of American Travel Writers Foundation selected Leon's story 'The Last of the Marsha Arabs' as the winner in the Environment category, he was the recipient of the 2017 Neville Shulman award, and he is a Fellow of the Abraham Path Initiative. In 2022 was awarded the Geographical Society of Philadelphia's Explorer of the Year.