Middle East - Anthony Ham [190]
The valley floor at the base of the old city houses the town’s two focal points, the bazaar and the white-and-green-trimmed Akre mosque. The crumbling town hall in the city centre has seen better days, but it’s a fine example of British colonial architecture. Just north of the city centre, a hiking path leads to Sipa Waterfall.
As there is no real tourism industry here, sleeping and eating options are limited. Sepal Hotel (New Akre, r ID50,000; ) is a new hotel with modern amenities, but when we stayed our room was filthy and the staff rude.
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GALI ALI BEG & THE HAMILTON ROAD
Prepare yourself for one of the most amazing sights in the Middle East. The northeast corner of Iraqi Kurdistan is an unheralded area of beauty marked by cascading waterfalls, soaring snowcapped mountains, deep gorges cut by raging rivers, rolling green hills and lush valleys. It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful and awe-inspiring place in Iraq.
In 1928 New Zealand engineer Sir Archibald Milne Hamilton was commissioned to build a road from the Kurdish capital of Erbil to Haji Omaran on the Iranian border. This ‘short cut’ allowed the creation of a strategic and direct overland route from the Mediterranean cities of Beirut and Alexandretta (now Iskenderun) to the Caspian Sea, Tehran and on to India. Hamilton completed his road in 1932 and detailed its construction in his travelogue, Road Through Kurdistan.
Named for its builder, The Hamilton Road remains a remarkable feat of engineering through some of the world’s most impassable and inhospitable terrain. Kurds also call it the Haji Omaran road, and it crosses at least five mountain ranges and rises from 409m in Erbil to about 1850m on the Iranian border. The most scenic portion of the drive is the 55km stretch from Gali Ali Beg to Haji Omaran.
In Road Through Kurdistan, Hamilton called Gali Ali Beg Canyon ‘one of the grandest formations of nature to be found in the world’. This Grand Canyon of the Middle East extends 12km between the Korak and Bradost mountains and is cut by two rivers that form to create the Great Zab River. The Hamilton Road traverses the canyon from west to east. At the western entrance to the canyon at the Peshmerga checkpoint, the road splits into upper and lower halves.
The Lower Hamilton Road runs parallel to the river past high, red limestone walls that rise almost vertically from the canyon floor. Halfway along the canyon is Gali Ali Beg Waterfall. Located about 100km northeast of Erbil, the waterfall is Iraq’s most famous, appearing on the back of the ID5000 note, and the falls tumble 80m into a frigid tidal pool that offers wading possibilities.
Upper Hamilton Road hugs the rim of the canyon along a series of hairpin turns. It’s not for the faint hearted. Road signs depict cars driving off cliffs, a reminder for drivers to watch their speed. The road eventually arrives at Bekhal Waterfall, a raging white-water falls that appears to pour straight out of the side of a mountain and down several steps. Both falls have pleasant cafés where you can sit and enjoy the scenery.
At the eastern end of the Upper Hamilton Road, on a high plateau overlooking the city of Rawanduz, sits Pank Resort ( 066-353 0105, 0750 412 8910; http://rawandoz.com; admission ID3000; 4-/8-person villa ID145,000/195,000; 8am-midnight). Built by an enterprising Kurdish-Swedish businessman, Pank features a rollercoaster, Ferris wheel, minigolf, restaurants and three helicopter landing pads.
The roads meet again in the dusty town of Rawanduz, a former British colonial outpost. From here, the road begins its most dramatic climb, running parallel to the Choman River. The regional market town of Choman is a city of about 10,000 people surrounded by unparalleled beauty and snowcapped mountains.
The Hamilton Road ends at the border town of Haji Omaran, the last city before the Iranian frontier. It’s a major point of legal