Kurdish History Journal
Articles filed under Kurdish History and Resilience.
At Sarpol-e Zahab in Kermanshah Province, Anubanini’s cliff carving combines a victorious ruler, Ishtar, prisoners and an Akkadian inscription. Reading its separate elements reveals both the king’s message and the limits of what the monument can establish.
Read article →The cliffs around Rawanduz belong to a wider mountain drainage system in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The landscape brings together resistant rock, river erosion, traces of older cold climates and an important twentieth-century road-building project.
Read article →The basalt walls of Diyarbakır surround a historic city above the Tigris. Their gates, changing masonry and medieval reliefs reveal successive building campaigns, while the adjoining Hevsel landscape explains the wider World Heritage designation.
Read article →Mar Mattai, also called Dayro d-Mor Matay and Dayr Mar Matta, is a Syriac Orthodox monastery on Mount Alfaf, or Jabal Maqlub, northeast of Mosul. Its history includes monastic learning, church leadership, periods of abandonment and the preservation of manuscripts.
Read article →Ecbatana (Hegmataneh), the ancient capital of the Medes beneath modern Hamadan — a great capital of the Iranian world tied to the Median heritage many Kurds look back to.
Read article →Nineveh’s palaces, cuneiform collections and excavated gates reveal an Assyrian capital within modern Mosul. Recent fieldwork helps separate ancient structures, later occupation and modern restoration.
Read article →Dara, the ancient Roman-Byzantine fortress city near Mardin — built in the 6th century against Persia, with vast cisterns, a dam, rock-cut tombs, and the famous 530 AD Battle of Dara.
Read article →The Ulu Cami of Diyarbakır, or Mizgefta Mezin in Amed, brings prayer halls, teaching spaces and richly carved courtyard façades into one complex. Inscriptions and restoration research reveal construction and repair across several periods.
Read article →The Church of Mar Jacob (Mor Yakup) at Nusaybin — one of the oldest churches in the world, founded in the early 4th century by Jacob of Nisibis and tied to the famed School of Nisibis.
Read article →Halfeti’s history after the Birecik Dam joins a partly submerged waterfront to a replacement settlement inland. Savaşan’s minaret, Rumkale and the cultivated black rose are distinct parts of this Euphrates landscape.
Read article →Arsameia near Eski Kahta preserves the royal sanctuary of Mithradates I, expanded by Antiochus I, with a handshake relief, Greek inscription and descending tunnel.
Read article →Balıklıgöl brings together the Halilürrahman and Aynzeliha pools, Abraham traditions and buildings from different periods. Architectural records and fish research explain the site beyond its familiar legend.
Read article →The Hevsel Gardens, the ancient green fields along the Tigris below the walls of Diyarbakır — cultivated for thousands of years, a haven for birds, and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read article →Deyrulzafaran, or Mor Hananyo, is a Syriac Orthodox monastery near Mardin. Its history includes rebuilding, patriarchal authority, manuscripts and printing, while its early foundation and the explanation of its saffron name require careful qualification.
Read article →The Cendere Bridge, a Roman stone arch in Adıyaman built nearly 1,800 years ago near Mount Nemrut — among the largest Roman arches ever raised, and still standing today.
Read article →Rumkale, the “Roman castle” on a cliff promontory above the Euphrates — a near-impregnable fortress and former Armenian church seat, now rising above a reservoir near Halfeti.
Read article →Harran, the ancient town near Şanlıurfa famed for its conical beehive houses — nearly 5,000 years old, named in the oldest scriptures, and a great centre of moon-god worship and early science.
Read article →Göbekli Tepe, the ~12,000-year-old temple complex near Şanlıurfa — the world’s oldest known monumental sanctuary, built by hunter-gatherers and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read article →The Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Akdamar Island in Lake Van — a thousand-year-old Armenian royal church famous for the vivid carved stone reliefs covering its walls.
Read article →Mardin Castle, the ancient “Eagle’s Nest” citadel crowning the rocky summit above the old city of Mardin — a stronghold of many empires overlooking the Mesopotamian plain.
Read article →Harput Castle, the ancient “Milk Castle” crowning the old town above Elazığ — a hilltop fortress of the upper Euphrates with origins in the Iron Age and a layered history of many empires.
Read article →Çavuştepe, the ruined Urartian fortress and palace south-east of Van — built in the 8th century BC with temples, cisterns, and remarkably fine cut stone and inscriptions.
Read article →The Aras River (Çemê Aras / Araxes), a great river of the highlands flowing beneath Mount Ararat along the northern edge of the Kurdish world — a river of borders, plains, and ancient history.
Read article →Lake Van (Gola Wanê), the largest lake in Turkey — a great soda lake among the volcanoes of the eastern Kurdish highlands, dotted with islands and rich in ancient history from Urartu to Akdamar.
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