The answer is Khadimiya.

It's at the heart of a Shia religious festival today.

Dagher: "Well today commemorates the death of the 7th Imman Musa al-Kazim and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims converged on the shrine in Kahdimiya north of Baghdad."

Many pilgrims flogged themselves with iron chains in mourning to commemorate the death in 799 of the seventh of the 12 imams. A symbolic green coffin was carried by others.

Sam Dagher reports for the Christian Science Monitor.

Dagher: "Security was tight around the city. There were checkpoints everywhere so we had to leave our cars outside the Khadimiya area then sort of walk to the shrine. Today you saw an outpour of people from all over Iraq, predominantly Shiites coming up to the city in bulaods, some even on foot because they believe if they make the journey on foot its a lot more blessed and it would be considered an active good deed and along the way there are tents put up by average people that distribute food and water and tea to the pilgrims and where pilgrims can rest and its also considered a good deed to give out food and drink to the pilgrims. What struck me the most was the generosity of some of the locals, particularly the natives of Khadimiya, so I stopped at one of these tents made of black drapes with posters of the imams and other Shiite religious art and they had stacked up huge bags of rice and beans and they spoke about how important it was for them to be serving the pilgrims on this day and I sensed a great deal of generosity which is important in today's Iraq given the amount of violence that takes place in this city on a daily basis."

That's Sam Dagher reporting on today's Shia pilgrimage to the Iraqi district Khadimiya.