We all know that it is our moral duty to holiday in South-East Asia in order to mitigate the economic effects of the devastation wrought by the tsunami. However, if you are looking for a clean conscience, who wants to lie on a beach when you could be helping out a war zone? What I like to call developmental tourism is a principle that could apply not only to devastation by an Act of God, but acts of man.

Where capitalism goes, democracy is sure to follow. Since foreign investment is reserved only for FOTP – friends of the president – the easiest way to get money to ordinary Iraqis is to book your seat on the next plane to Baghdad and take in the sights and sounds of a country known as "the cradle of civilisation."

The spotlight of history has rarely wandered from Iraq: it is a country full of surprises, and I do not just mean the car bombs. Here are a few of the not-to-be-missed highlights between the Euphrates and the Tigris. They do not call themselves the Party of the Two Rivers for nothing, you know.

1. Before you go

Check out some regional history online. Over the years, Iraq has gone by many names. It has been part of Sumeria, Nimrod's Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonia, Darius' Persia, Saladin's Mesopotamia, and the Abbasid Empire.

However, in order to take its place as a developed nation among equals, what do Iraqis really want? 24 hours a day of electricity? Control over their oil revenues? Well, yes, but they also want the internet country code '.iq' reinstated. The National Museum has a website where you can sign a petition: www.baghdadmuseum.org. After all, what is in a domain name?

2. When you get there

Make sure you bring lots of cash, because the fifteen-mile taxi ride from the airport to the city centre can cost up to £2,750. For that, you get two cars and four bodyguards. That is quadruple the price of the flight from London, and works out at £183 per mile, versus 26p per mile on the plane. When the Abbasids built Baghdad, they named it "The City of Peace." Just let the irony sink in for a second.

3. The Iraqi National Museum

Assuming you make it into the city without being kidnapped, this is a must for any culture vulture in the nation's capital – with vulture being the operative word after 10 April 2003, when the looting of priceless Middle Eastern artefacts started following the fall of Saddam's regime. According to the 24 July 2004 issue of the Iraqi Press Monitor, "looting the country's museum and antiquities was premeditated before the war and before the fall of the regime" by antiquities experts and museum personnel.

Initially, 50,000 items were estimated to be missing. However, since this included the card catalogue, that number was really just a guess. Interpol, the FBI, and an army of art historians have apparently since reclaimed many items through a combination of criminal investigation, scouring the black market and, presumably, e-bay.

4. Babylon: it is in the Bible. Twice.

Our tour takes us fifty miles south of Baghdad to the ruins of this glorious city, unearthed in the 19th century and home to the eponymous hanging gardens. Babylon is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Babel, so the city was also home to the biblical tower.

The most famous Babylonian Emperor, Nebuchadnezzar II, whose name is just so much fun to say, was the one who exiled the entire aristocratic elite and religious leadership from Judea, now Israel. See the psalms for details. See also Simon and Garfunkel. Saddam considered himself a latter-day Nebuchadnezzar, relocating fractious ethnic minorities left, right, centre, and often below ground in a box.

5. Tomb of Ali in Najaf: see where all the intra-Islamic religious tension started

A little further on, Najaf lies 100 miles south of Baghdad. Following the death of the Prophet Mohammed in 632, there were four orthodox Khalifa, known to us as Caliphs. Soon enough, questions of succession arose about Ali ibn Abu Talib, the fourth leader of the Uma, or "brotherhood", of Muslims, who was cousin and son in law of the prophet. Known as Imam Ali to his friends, he gave away his right to rule to a rather dastardly chap called Mu'awiyah, whose name even sounds like an evil laugh, who, predictably, promptly murdered Ali.

The resulting split was the ultimate cause of the division between Sunni, "traditional path," and Shiite, or Shi'at Ali meaning "party of Ali," Muslims. The shrine at Najaf is stunningly beautiful, except for the sodding great hole in the dome thanks to fighting between American forces and Muqtada al-Sadr's rebels in August 2004. Both sides say the other lot did it.

Now let us turn our attention to the north.

6. The Sunni Triangle of Death

From the name, you would think this was some kind of rollercoaster, and in a sick, twisted, way, it is. I am sure that the daily threat of death by dismemberment gives an adrenaline rush that cannot be beaten.

The most deadly area of the entire country, which stretches north from Baghdad for 100 miles until Tikrit, is full of people that got used to power and are doing some serious pouting about having it taken away. Foreigners are targets, as are Iraqis that help foreigners, sometimes even if they do not. Everyone is, in fact, a target.

7. Hatra: the first Fallujah

Hatra resisted invasion during the two wars in the Persian Gulf waged by the single major Western superpower. Admittedly, it was the Romans, not the Americans, this was C.E. 116 and 198, and the local people were known as Parthians.

Still, they stood up twice to the big bad diktat that insisted that invasion was good for civilisation. The passage of time has done what the Romans could not: the ruins are now the only UNESCO World Heritage site in Iraq.

8. What is the capital of Assyria? Nineveh.

While Monty Python's King Arthur and his English kerniggits had to cross the Bridge of Death by answering Nineveh, now you have to cross the Triangle of Death to get there. Nineveh was the seat of government for Nimrod's Assyrian empire that came down like a wolf on the fold. If you do not know your Byron, they came down like Black Hawk helicopters on the rebels on nearby Mosul. Nimrod is in the Old Testament too.

9. Tikrit: birthplace of Saladin

Remember the blue dude in the tapestry tilting his lance at Richard Lionheart? You know, the guy who kicked the Franj – that is us – out of the Kingdom of Jerusalem? Well, his name is really Salah ad-Din, and he was born in the same town as Saddam Hussein. Coincidence? I think not. And neither did Saddam. He routinely linked himself to the last chap who protected Iraq from the occidentals, albeit in the days when it was Mesopotamia.

An official press published a book about Saddam called "Saladin II" and he had statues made of himself in medieval gear on a horse. In case you missed the resemblance, there was a stamp bearing their smiling faces side by side. If Saladin had been alive during the reign of Saddam, however, he would have been gassed, because he was a Kurd, which takes us neatly to our final attraction.

10. Kurdistan: it is a nation waiting to happen

Cross the green line separating this loose coalition of three regions from the rest of the country to the south, and you leave a state of emergency and enter an emerging state. Relatively peaceful, the Kurds are taking the opportunities offered by international aid to rebuild infrastructure demolished by Saddam.

Making up two-fifths of the Iraqi population, Kurds and their leaders say they will stay part of the Iraqi nation, but the Kurdish deputy prime minister of Iraq refers to Kurdistan much as Sean Connery refers to Scotland. Honestly, you get a sense of déja-vu from post-Tito Yugoslavia. Watch this space for interracial genocide perpetrated by a formerly oppressed ethnic minority on their "occupiers." That is to say, the Sunni Muslim Arabs that settled the Kurdish regions and, it almost goes without saying, took over their oilfields.

In conclusion, Iraq is a nasty place to be, whether you are fighting for freedom on either side or just an Iraqi that went to pick up some bread and came back paraplegic. People are dying in ever greater numbers every day, on both sides, because they have not learned the lessons of history.

It would be worthwhile if every rebel insurgent and every American soldier were forcibly dragged to the scene of each of the bloody power struggles that have taken place on Iraqi soil over the centuries and told to pull their socks up. Or be sent to bed early with no supper to think about what they have done.