Iraq may seem the central focus regarding the farcical ‘war on terror’ meme. However, Iraq happens to be one of the oldest cultures in the world. It is a place rich in heritage, the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel are said to have been sited in this ancient land. Not to mention ancient Mesopotamia (pre-Iraq) also gave us writing and the wheel.

There is however another quite remarkable device which dates back over 2,000 years; the Baghdad Battery. This device may have been used as a galvanic cell, perhaps used for electroplating objects and garnishing them with a gold or silver layer. The amazing part, if the battery was used for this purpose then it pre-dates Alessandro Volta’s 1800 invention of the electrochemical cell by more than a millennium.

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