A decent small article which provides a Westerners take on bashuri (south/Iraq) Kurdistan and the beauty and history it holds. Q. What is Erbil (Hewler in Kurdish) like? A. It is an expansive, bustling city of more than 1.5 million people, replete with skyscrapers, fancy restaurants and streets filled with the nouveau riche driving the most expensive cars I’ve ever seen. At the same time, it’s extremely ancient – consistently inhabited for at least 7,000 years. It has been conquered and ruled by many different empires: Assyrian, Persian, Greek and Roman to the Arabs, Ottomans and Mongols. A famous battle was fought in the western suburbs of Erbil between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Many scholars say that was a turning point for Alexander’s decision to expand his empire to the east. The center of the city is the Citadel, a circle-like fortress on a small plateau; the four neighborhoods up there had mosques, synagogues, churches, schools and public baths. The Kurdistan Regional Government and UNESCO have been revitalizing that area for several years. There’s a great deal of of history. The main bazaar – market – begins at the base of the Citadel; a lot of older neighborhoods surround the Citadel and there are beautiful parks throughout the city. The largest park was used as air force base in Saddam Hussein’s era; after 2003, it has been transformed into what’s considered the largest park in the Middle East. The park is so immense people get lost there. It has restaurants, gardens, a couple lakes and playgrounds.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 06:35:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015