Al-Mustansiriya University

The medieval college on the banks of the Tigris in Baghdad ranks among the oldest continuously recognized centres of higher learning in the world, founded in the thirteenth century by an Abbasid caliph. Its long brick facade and grand courtyard once housed teaching in law, medicine, mathematics, and Qur'anic studies, with lodgings for students and a celebrated water clock at its gate. The restored building preserves carved brickwork, an ornate portal, and the arcaded court of a great institution of the Islamic golden age.