Landmarks of Kurdistan
Explore the lakes, rivers, peaks, waterfalls, valleys and heritage places that shape the Kurdish atlas.
Gola Wanê
گۆلی وانLake Van · The great soda lake of Bakur, lying at 1,640 m — one of the largest endorheic soda lakes on Earth, around 3,755 km². Its alkaline water holds the endemic pearl mullet, and on the island of Axtamar stands the 10th-century Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross.
Gola Urmiyê
گۆلی ورمێLake Urmia · The vast salt lake of Rojhilat, between Urmiyê and Tebrîz — once the largest lake in the Middle East. Dams and drought have shrunk it severely since the 1990s, and when the water runs low, salt-loving algae turn what remains a deep pink. A UNESCO biosphere reserve.
Gola Zrêbarê
گۆلی زرێبارLake Zrebar · A freshwater lake fed by springs rising from its own bed, stretched beneath the mountains west of Merîwan. Reed beds fringe its shallows, rowing boats drift out on summer evenings, and in hard winters the whole surface freezes over.
Gola Nemrûtê
گۆلی نەمروودNemrut Crater Lake · Inside the caldera of the Nemrût volcano above Gola Wanê lies one of the largest crater lakes on Earth — a cold blue crescent beside warm pools fed by volcanic springs. The eruption that shaped it also dammed Lake Van itself.
Gola Dûkanê
گۆلی دووکانLake Dukan · The largest lake of Başûr, formed on the Zêyê Biçûk (Lesser Zab) by the Dukan dam, finished in 1959. Ringed by Zagros foothills near Ranye, its shores are a beloved summer retreat for families from Silêmanî and Hewlêr.
Dîcle
دیجلەTigris · One of the two rivers of Mesopotamia — “the land between the rivers”. The Dîcle rises in the mountains of Bakur and bends beneath the black basalt walls of Amed, watering the UNESCO-listed Hevsel Gardens, before flowing on through Başûr toward Baghdad.
Ferat
فوراتEuphrates · The longest river of Western Asia, near 2,800 km. Both of its headwaters — the Murad and the Karasu — rise in the highlands of Bakur, and it traces the western edge of the Kurdish lands past drowned valleys and clifftop strongholds like Rumkale, pictured here.
Zêyê Mezin
زێی گەورەGreat Zab · The wild river of the Zagros: born in the mountains southeast of Gola Wanê, the Zêyê Mezin cuts nearly 400 km of gorges through Colemêrg and Başûr — including the great canyon at Bêxme — before joining the Dîcle south of Mûsil.
Çiyayê Agirî
چیای ئاگریMount Ararat · A dormant volcano of 5,137 m — the highest summit of the region, rising alone above Bazîd and the plain of Îdir. Snow-capped the year round, it gave its name to the Republic of Ararat of 1927–1930 and stands in Kurdish and Armenian tradition alike.
Helgurd
هەڵگوردMount Halgurd · At 3,607 m the highest mountain lying entirely within Iraq, in the Hesarost range of the central Zagros near Çoman. Snow lingers on its flanks deep into summer, and it is the favourite goal of the growing mountaineering scene of Başûr.
Tavgeya Gelî Elî Beg
تاڤگەی گەلی عەلی بەگGali Ali Beg waterfall · The best-known waterfall of Kurdistan, tumbling into the Gelî Elî Beg canyon along the Hamilton Road near Rewandiz. In spring the snowmelt makes it thunder; it is so loved that it is engraved on Iraq's 5,000-dinar banknote.
Tavgeya Bêxal
تاڤگەی بێخاڵBekhal waterfall · Spring water bursts straight from the rock of the Korek range and cascades in white steps through the trees near Rewandiz. A short drive from the Gelî Elî Beg canyon, it is a beloved stop on the old Hamilton Road.
Geliyê Munzurê
دۆڵی مونزورMunzur Valley · The sacred river gorge of Dersim, where the Munzur cuts through limestone walls on its way south — the largest national park of Turkey and a holy landscape of springs and shrines for Alevi Kurds, rich in wild goats and rare flora.
Qelata Hewlêrê
قەڵای هەولێرErbil Citadel · A fortified tell rising 30 m above Hewlêr, occupied for perhaps 6,000 years and counted among the longest continuously inhabited places on Earth. Its ochre ring of façades crowns buried layers of Assyrian, Median and Ottoman city. UNESCO World Heritage since 2014.
Sûrên Amedê
شوورەکانی ئامەدWalls of Amed (Diyarbakır Fortress) · Five and a half kilometres of black basalt wall ring the old city of Amed — among the longest defensive walls in the world. Raised on Roman foundations and rebuilt by every power since, with 82 towers and four great gates. UNESCO-listed together with the Hevsel Gardens.
Qela Sîm'an
قەڵای سیمعانChurch of Saint Simeon (Qalʿat Simʿān) · The great 5th-century pilgrimage church on the hills near Efrîn, built around the pillar on which Simeon the Stylite stood for 37 years. When finished it was the largest church in the world; its cruciform ruin anchors the UNESCO-listed Ancient Villages of Northern Syria.
Kela Xoşabê
قەڵای خۆشابHoşap Castle · A fortress on a crag above the Xoşab river south-east of Wan, rebuilt in 1643 by Sarî Silêman Beg of the Kurdish Mahmûdî emirate. Behind its round-towered gatehouse lay mosques, baths and hundreds of rooms — the finest surviving castle of the Kurdish emirates.
Heskîf
حەسکیفHasankeyf · A 12,000-year-old town carved into the cliffs of the Dîcle, with thousands of rock dwellings, a ruined medieval bridge and the turquoise tomb of Zeynel Beg. Most of old Heskîf drowned beneath the Ilisu dam reservoir in 2020 — pictured here before the flooding.
Laliş
لالشLalish · The holiest sanctuary of the Êzidî faith, folded into a green valley — every Êzidî is called to pilgrimage here once in their life. Its fluted conical spires shelter the tomb of Şêx Adî, and its springs, the Kaniya Spî and Zimzim, are sacred.
Hewraman
هەورامانHawraman (Uramanat) · The steep Hewraman valleys of the Zagros, where stone villages like Hewramana Text climb the mountainside in stacked terraces — the roof of one house is the courtyard of the next. Inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 as a living Kurdish Hewramî cultural landscape.
Xirabreşk
خرابرەشکGöbekli Tepe · The world's oldest known monumental sanctuary, raised on a hill near Riha around 9500 BC — millennia before Stonehenge or writing. Its rings of carved T-shaped megaliths, known locally by the Kurdish name Xirabreşk, rewrote the story of the Neolithic. UNESCO-listed since 2018.
Çiyayê Nemrûdê
چیای نەمروودMount Nemrut (Commagene) · On a 2,134 m summit above Semsûr, King Antiochus I of Commagene raised colossal stone gods around his burial mound in the 1st century BC. Earthquakes have toppled the great heads to the terrace floor, where they still watch the sunrise. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Şikefta Şaneder
ئەشکەوتی شانەدەرShanidar Cave · A great cave mouth in the Bradost mountains where excavations uncovered ten Neanderthals, one seemingly laid to rest on a bed of flowers — a find that changed how we imagine them. On the slopes below lay one of the first villages of the earliest farmers.