Tourism in Iraq (Dohuk Region)

Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Between Iraq and a Hard Place: Episode 56

Learn more at www.ServantGroup.org/Iraq and email Hannah at [e-mail] with questions, comments, or suggestions!

Hannah: A special mini episode for you! It's the last ten minutes of the previous episode about tourism in northern Iraq. This one is just about Duhok, baby! We realized that we were really running over time, so… Here you go! Special mini episode on Duhok tourism, starting now!

Hannah: Duhok itself has the Duhok Dam…

Colleen: …which is like the number one place all Kurds want to go!

Hannah: It's huge and it's painted to look like a giant Kurdish flag.

Colleen: Which, I mean, what more could you want?

Hannah: What more could you want. It's earthen, primarily earthen, dam. So the Duhok Lake is behind it. We just always called it the Geli, which maybe is the Kurdish word for dam or for ravine, but that whole neighborhood is just known as the Geli, which I lived in the Geli neighborhood for a little while.

Hannah: It's also touristy, like they have a mini golf course and an arcade at the bottom of the dam.

Colleen: And a restaurant?

Hannah: Yeah.

Colleen: Like, I've seen the restaurant!

Hannah: And an ice cream stand. Apparently Duhok is famous for its ice cream…

Colleen: No kidding!

Hannah: I did not know this until I lived there and they were, like, "Yeah, Duhok has the best ice cream." And I was, like, "Well, ok."

Colleen: All the ice cream I ever ate was from Turkey.

Hannah: They make their own in Duhok. It's pretty good.

Colleen: I mean that would be famous compared to places that don't really make their own.

Colleen: There are two other caves-ish there. The one I remember visiting we always just called the Zoroastrian cave and it's got these four pillars and, like, obviously things had been burned in there--it's kind of black and sooty. There are stories--again, I feel like people don't really know what it was for--about, you know, different goddesses or the Mithridaties.

Hannah: Sure. It a very weird…

Colleen: It's one of those, you know, mystery religions ones that maybe they were part of that or it was their temple…

Hannah: Or maybe it was theirs first, and then the Zoroastrians got it.

Colleen: Yeah, that was the only place I ever actually met tourists from Mosul.

Hannah: Oh, really!

Colleen: You know, because you walk up on this hill and its got this plaque down at the bottom about Zoroastrianism, and, um, yeah, made some friends, got some pictures with people.

Hannah: Nice! What's the other cave?

Colleen: It's the one that I've never been to but that Victoria talked about going to--the Halamata cave--which has actual carvings and is Assyrian, I think.

Hannah: Yeah, it's up on Zawa mountain, which Zawa is a tourist attraction, too. Again, for Nowruz, all the Duhok people go up on Zawa and set off fireworks. It's not as beautiful as Aqrah, but it is cool because you can look down on all of Duhok. It's really cool to be up there. We went up there once to watch the sunrise and the moon set, because they were happening at the same time. So we went up on Zawa to watch it. It's the coldest I've ever been in my life. It's really cold.

Colleen: Yeah, standing on mountains in Iraq is definitely one of colder, colder times I've had. We did up that on Azmar Mountain, which is the mountain, large hill, that overlooks Suly, and we went up there for Easter morning sunrise service! The wind was whipping through there and were all huddled in a circle and trying in some sort of Easter song. And it was too cold!!

Colleen: Yeah, um, the other thing that only really knew about Westerners or high school kids doing is hiking up to Flag Mountain, which is a mountainside that overlooks Duhok that's basically just rock but someone has painted the Kurdish flag on it.

Colleen: I mean, again, what more do you want?

Hannah: I guess. I never went up there, because I never understood why…

Colleen: When we were looking up different things that tourists go to see in Kurdistan before we did this episode, just to make sure that we weren't forgetting anything drastic. One of the things that was mentioned a lot by different people was all of the murals and the mural art in different places.

Colleen: There are some really awesome murals!

Colleen: And there are a lot of really cool murals and, because of the intensity of the sun and the low quality of the paint, they change fairly frequently, because they fade so quickly. And so, there are ones that I remember seeing that are definitely not there anymore or got repainted over with something different. But it's definitely a fun part of being there and going to different places and seeing what kind of paintings there are on rocks and dams and old military barriers, checkpoints, and along the side of the road.

Hannah: The military barriers are pretty popular for murals. There was one town that I do not know the name of that we would drive through between Erbil and Duhok that had a mosaic mural that went along the side of the highway on one of their walls, which was always really cool…

Colleen: But the most common is definitely paintings of the flag of Kurdistan.

Hannah: Oh yeah, super common! Super common. I think the only one we really have left is Zahko bridge, which is popular with everybody!

Colleen: Yeah, I never made it.

Hannah: That's too bad! It's pretty cool. I say that. The last time I went was when I was in Duhok the last time I was visiting.

Colleen: So not while you will lived there!

Hannah: Not while I lived there! One of my students and her brother took me up there. There's an old Roman bridge built across a very tumultuous river, still in use, in Zakho. You can walk across it. It's definitely touristy. The day we went there it was rainy, so there weren't a lot of people. But yeah, you can walk across it. It might be the only thing there is to do in Zahhol.

Colleen: I know that, like, the people who went there when we took high school students around different places one year and different stuff like that, that it was just the thing you were going for was to see this bridge.

Hannah: And I think I was told by one of my students that the reason that it's famous was that there were some forbidden lovers who threw themselves off of the bridge to drown in the river in protest, like Romeo and Juliet kind of thing, and so the bridge has never been demolished to commemorate their love. Everything that I read about it is that it's just a really old Roman bridge, a stone arch bridge, and there is a modern bridge now, too.

Colleen: But, I mean, there are a lot of star-crossed Kurdish lovers in Kurdish poetry. It is a very popular theme.

Hannah: Yeah, it is.

Colleen: But I think that about covers it.

Hannah: There are definitely things that we left out.

Colleen: Well, there were a lot of things that we left out that we could not a) find on the internet, identify by name, things we randomly saw.

Hannah: Yeah, I mean I've seen pictures from students and other friends who find these, like, beautiful places that I'm like, "Where is that!? How did you get there? Why did you never take me there!?"

Colleen: My favorite one of those is one called Deralok Dam, which the photos of it look magical with this stunning teal, blue water, and when I first saw it I was like, "That is photoshopped!" And they're like, "No, no, it's real."

Hannah: So is there actually a dam?

Colleen: There is a dam.

Hannah: With water behind it?

Colleen: There is water behind it, I think.

Hannah: Because I know there's also some sort of natural spring that also has turquoise water, but its white stone with turquoise water--like it looks very Mediterranean.

Colleen: Yeah, I do feel like this did look Mediterranean to me, but I don't think any of what I saw looked like it had white stone. But there are a couple of different areas of it. There's like a family area and then like a mens' area.

Hannah: Maybe it's the men's area. The only reason I say that is because my male friends are the ones who have posted certain pictures.

Colleen: But yeah, I never even heard of that while I was in Iraq.

Hannah: I'm sure there are some that we've missed that we just never saw, and I also feel like things continue to be discovered: little magical, beautiful gems of places. It's definitely, there is always something more to explore carefully.

Colleen: Carefully.

Hannah: And with a guide, if you can get one. Yeah, tell us about your places that you've visited that are maybe off the beaten path. I know there are a ton of places where I grew up that I love to go to that I won't tell other people about because I don't want to ruin it. So if you have those special places, maybe don't give us details, but let us know! Some magic gem you found somewhere along the way, and we'll be back… to talk about prison.

Colleen: Probably. Yeah, I don't know that that's our next one!

Hannah: Prison!

Colleen: We'd love to hear from you! You can find us Servant Group International on Facebook or Instagram and you should check out our blog and complete transcripts over at servantgroup.org.

Hannah: And it's really hopeful for us if you share our podcast or leave a review on whatever platform you listen to this podcast on! It helps us know that people are listening and lets us know what you want to hear next!

Colleen: Thanks for listening!