S?marr? is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, 125 kilometers (78 mi) north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700.
Medieval Islamic writers believed that the name �Samarra� is derived from the Arabic phrase �Sarra man ra�a�, which translates to �A joy for all who see�. Later when the city declined the name changed to �Sa'a man ra�a�, which translates to �A sadness for all who see�. Eventually the two names merged to its current form Samarra'.
In 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites
