Women stand on a street ahead of the Lunar New Year celebration at the Chinatown in Bangkok, Thailand, February 10, 2021. (Photo by Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters)

A cycle-rickshaw puller takes a nap during a hot afternoon along a street in Amritsar on April 19, 2022. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

A man looks at kebabs cooking on the street side in Rawalpindi, Pakistan October 2, 2017. (Photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters)

Commuters make their way through a flooded street after a heavy rain shower in Lahore on July 14, 2022. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

A man looks at a figure outside a store as he walks along a street in Beijing on March 2, 2021. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

An Afghan boy carrying empty plastic cans, walks along a street in Kabul on December 21, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

A woman dressed in traditional clothing visits a business street in Beijing on June 5, 2024. (Photo by Wang Zhao/AFP Photo)

Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, is locked under the rule of extremists from the Islamic State group trying to purge it of everything they see as contradicting their stark vision of Islam. A trove of photographs now housed at the Library of Congress offers a glimpse of a different Mosul – before wars, insurgency, sectarian strife and now radicals' rule. The scenes were taken in the autumn of 1932 by staff from the American Colony Photo Department during a visit to Iraq at the end of the British mandate. (Photo by AP Photo)