Middle East - Anthony Ham [191]
Haji Omaran is one of the busiest border crossings between Iraq and Iran. Unfortunately, it is not possible to cross the border from here into Iran without a prearranged Iranian visa.
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SHAQLAWA
About 50km northeast of Erbil at the base of Safeen Mountain is the resort town of Shaqlawa. At 966m above sea level, the cool temperatures and lush, green environment have long attracted wealthy Iraqi tourists from the hotter Arab regions of the country. Shaqlawa is a predominantly Assyrian Christian town with several new churches.
A strenuous one-hour hike leads up into a canyon on the side of Safeen Mountains. Hidden in a rock crevice near the top of the mountain are the ruins of the Rabban Beya Monastery. Dating to the 4th century AD, the ruins consist of a stone arch and three crumbling, small rooms. The real reward here is the stunning view of the Beya Valley and Shaqlawa below. The steep trail is mostly a dirt and gravel path barely half a metre wide, definitely not for those afraid of heights. Bring plenty of water and sturdy footwear.
Shaqlawa has at least four hotels, several restaurants, falafel shops, supermarkets and liquor stores.
Motel Saffin (Shaqlawa; motel_saffin@yahoo.com; 066 256 5126, 0770 652 5516; 4-/8-person r ID72,000/90,000) has large bungalow-style rooms surrounding a large garden. All rooms have kitchenettes, TV, private entrance, four or eight beds and both Western and squat toilets. Kind manager Karim speaks English, Armenian, Arabic and Kurdish, and will happily let you use his internet connection.
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ERBIL
066 / pop 1 million
Erbil (Kurdish: Hawler) is the capital of the Kurdish Regional Government and the largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Today, Erbil is where it’s all happening. It’s the fastest-growing city in Iraq, with dozens of ambitious projects under construction including the tallest building in Iraq (the Korek Tower), an 8000-store shopping complex (Nishtiman Mall), a five-star luxury hotel (Park Kempinski Hotel) and a new airport with a runway long enough to land the double-decker Airbus 380, or even the Space Shuttle.
Billboards advertise luxury Western-style homes in posh subdivisions with names such as ‘Dream City’ or ‘English Village’. Erbil’s Master Plan even calls for championship golf courses, a wildlife safari, amusement parks and a Grand Prix racetrack. Erbil, dare we say, is the new Dubai. It’s a tolerant, diverse city full of big dreams and optimism that serves as a model for all of Iraq.
History
There is archaeological evidence that Neolithic peoples roamed the area 10,000 years ago. The first written record of Erbil dates back to 2000 BC when it was called Arbilum. The city was consecutively invaded by Akkadians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Persians and Greeks. Around 100 AD, Erbil became a centre of Christianity until Muslims conquered it in 642 AD. Erbil prospered as a centre of learning and trade during the Islamic Golden Age. Over the next several hundred years, Erbil passed through many powerful hands including the Abbasids, Moguls, Turkomans, Persians, Ottomans and British. For centuries, Erbil has revolved around its citadel, an enormous city on a manmade hill built up by a succession of civilisations.
During the mid-1990s, Erbil was caught in the middle of the Iraqi Kurdish Civil War between the armies of the two major political parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Erbil was PUK territory until it