Kurdistan

 Kurdistan  

We left Mosul and drove north towards Kurdistan.

And towards the mountains.

The uniorms at the checkpoints were different. And ultimately, the last check point had the Kurdistan flag flying instead of the Iraqi flag. It is red, white and green horizontal stripes with a yellow sun in the centre. 

We were going to see the Mar Mattai Monastery, located high on a cliff. It was founded in 363 AD making it one of the oldest monasteries in the world. It has suffered several pillagings but its surviving treasures and manuscripts were buried before the ISIS terrorists could destroy them, and so they have survived.

It was a torturous series of zig zags and hairpin bends to get up the cliff face.

Finally, the monastery. 

A view back down the path that pilgrims would walk up. 

One of the elaborate doorways.

A cloister.

A plaza. 

The entrance. 

A view down the valley and the path that pilgrims would walk to reach th monastery.

The sunny side of the entrance.

And we drove further into the mountains and saw trees, a rare sight on the plains but up in the mountains, there was more rainfall.

We stopped at Akre with its mosque that was built in 642 AD, just 20 years into the muslim calendar. Conversion was made easier as there was a tax on non-Muslims so it was a pragmatic reason to convert to Islam.

The doorway into the mosque. 

The town is built in a valley, as was the mosque, so it it very differicult to get any complete views of the mosque. 

Some of the landscape above the town...

...all towns have a 'I Love...' sign. 

Some of the community spreading up the hillside.

The minaret and dome of the mosque.

We drove on for two hours to reach Erbil.