On August 21, 2017, millions of Americans will witness the first total solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in 99 years. While hordes of citizens prepare to flock to the eclipse’s path of totality, scientists, too, are staking out spots for a very different reason: to investigate the secrets of the sun’s elusive atmosphere.

Sumer. Babylon. The epic Gilgamesh and the Tower of Babel. Today, these names still resonate. They embody Mesopotamia - the land between the two rivers of Tigris and Euphrates. Regarded as a cradle of civilization, within this historical region humanity organized itself into a society of tens of thousands. Jawad Bashara, an Iraqi writer exiled in France under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, returns to his country, embarking on a hazardous journey in search of our origins.