cryptidz
Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq's marshlands - the abode of the Afa.

Marsh Arabs in southern Iraq's marshlands - the abode of the Afa.

The Afa was a large cryptid lizard reported from the marshes of the Tigris River in Iraq by Wilfred Thesiger.

Description

It has been connected with the Buru. The Afa may have been a large undescribed species of monitor lizard. Karl Shuker notes that the marshes of southern Iraq were drained in 1991, forcing the Madan people to relocate and turning the marsh into a desert, which would certainly have had a negative impact on any already-rare animal living in the area.

Peter Costello suggested that the Afa could be the Sirrush depicted on the Ishtar Gate.