Google the giant among the search engines is ready to document Iraq’s national museum by posting photographs of the ancient artifacts on the internet by next year.

Google’s chief executive, Eric schmidt said that the company has a plan to visit Baghdad. He said “I can think of no better use of our time and our resources than to make the images and ideas … available to billions of people worldwide”.

He also said that at least 14,000 photographs have been taken of the Iraqi museum and its artifacts, and by early 2010 its images will be available online. Artifacts from other sites will also be taken in as they become available and then will be put on display.

After six years the national museum in Baghdad was reopened in February as it was one of the many institutions which were looted and set ablaze after Saddam Hussein the former Iraqi president was ousted in 2003.

The museum’s director, Amira Edan said that around 5,000 artifacts were recovered so far out of the estimated 15,000 which were looted during the year 2003. Amira said that the Google’s step towards the museum will provide its recovery towards normalcy and will provide a useful tool for scholars who wants to study the ancient Mesopotamia.

US troops were intensely criticized as they failed to protect the treasures from looting at the museum and other cultural institutions.

Eric schmidt said “Most American companies are not yet operating in Iraq”.

“We would like to show that it’s possible to do business in Iraq, that Iraq is an important market that will grow quickly, that it’s sufficiently stable that you can begin your business operations here and that it’s a safe place to be”.

The museum is said to hold artifacts from the Babylonian and the Stone age and from the periods of Assyrian and Islamic rule.

(Courtesy : Al Jazeera)