To Sulaimaniya & Back: Part I

Saturday morning, August 18, 2012, the "seminarians", as I call ourselves, left Ankawa for a daytrip to Sulaymaniyah.  The 6 of us were transported in a Dodge mini-van driven by Mr. Nabil.  I have come to realize that in the Middle East there is no one way to spell a word.  The city of Sulaymaniyah is no exception.  It is also called Sulaimaniya, Sulaimani, Silemani or Slemani in the Kurdish language.  Sulaymaniya is about a 3 hour drive from Ankawa in a southeasterly direction.  Sulaymaniyah is considered the center of the Sorani Kurdish culture in Kurdistan. It is recognized officially as the cultural capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The city is known for its open, relatively liberal and tolerant society when compared to other cities of Kurdistan and Iraq. 



We drove to Sulaymaniya basically to say we had been there.  For when we arrived at 11 am we quickly found out that most points of interest were closed ( it was the last day of Ramadan and many places were still closed ). We did, however, stop by the Chaldean Catholic Church of St. Joseph.  The pastor came out to greet us and to offer us some cold refreshments.  We enjoyed our time with him and then headed back towards Erbil and Ankawa.  There were points of interest along the return trip where we spent some time.

The first point of interest was a place called the Qzqaban Excavation.  It is the Zoroastrian tomb of King Cyaxares carved into the face of a cliff about 22 feet above ground level.  It overlooks the Razan River valley.   It is very old, around 585 B.C. It consisted of a hall, 3 rooms and 3 graves.

Relief carved from the face of the cliff, to the left of the entrance.

 

Above is the relief of 2 Median Magi priests worshipping their King Cyaxeres and their god Ahura Mazda.

The sun disk in the photo is to the right of the main entrance. 

Kathy, Mary, & Erin in front of the tomb.

View from the tomb, looking out over the Razan River valley.  The river is hidden among the line of "green" trees.

For more information about the excavation, go to the following web site:

http://qyzqapan.blogspot.com/

From the excavation site we drove a short distance down another canyon road to a place that was once the stomping grounds of the Peshmerga.  Peshmerga or Peshmerge is the term used by Kurds to refer to armed Kurdish fighters. Literally meaning "those who face death", the Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan have been in existence since the advent of the Kurdish independence movement in the early 1920s, following the collapse of the Ottoman and Qajar empires which had jointly ruled over the area. Many Kurds will say that all Kurds willing to fight for their rights are Peshmerga.  Because they hid in the many caves of the area, they were difficult for their enemies to root out.

This large cave had beds, shelves for storage, rooms, etc.  It was a headquarters type cave.

The ladies standing on the road in the canyon, with cliff walls full of caves on either side.

The Kurds are fighters and believe that they are the descendants of the Median King Cyaxares, whose tomb we had just visited.  I believe that the lyrics of the Kurdish National Anthem, "Ey Reqîb", says it all. 

 Ey Reqîb means"Oh, Enemy" or "Hey Enemy"

Oh, enemy, Kurdish people live on!

It shall not be defeated by the weapons of any age

Let no one say Kurds are dead!

The Kurds are living,

their flag will never fall

Watch our blood that we shed on this way

We are the descendants of the Medes and King Cyaxares (Kurdish: Keyxusrew), our religion is our nation

We, the youth are the red colour of the revolution

Let no one say Kurds are dead! They are living,

The Kurdish youth have risen like lions

To adorn the crown of life with blood

The Kurdish youth are ever present and

Forever will be ready to sacrifice their lives

Sacrifice each life they have, each life they have! 

You can hear it sung in Kurdish by going to the following link: "Ey Reqîb" Kurdish National Anthem

From here we went on to visit 2 other places.  I will write about them in Part II.

jw