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Rescuing Erbil's citadel offers a beacon
of hope for Iraq
24.1.2008
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January 24, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', --
Towering above the modern streets and buildings of
Erbil, the citadel's narrow alleyways and dusty
courtyards stand almost deserted. Its mud brick
houses, built atop layers of ancient civilizations
stretching back through millennia, are crumbling.
Erbil's citadel, claimed to be one of the longest
continuously inhabited urban areas on Earth, with a
history of more than 8,000 years, is in danger. Its
slopes are eroding and its buildings are collapsing.
But authorities in northern Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan region have a plan to rescue it. They hope
to turn the citadel, and the vast archeological
wealth buried within the mound on which it stands,www.ekurd.net
into a world-renowned
tourist site complete with hotels, coffee houses,
art galleries - and a vibrant, permanent living
community. |
The outer walls of ancient Erbil |
The planned reconstruction is a beacon of hope for
Iraq's rich cultural heritage and highlights the
vast differences between the relatively tranquil
Kurdish region in the north and the violence in
other parts of the country.
In Erbil, the Iraqi Kurdistan's capital 345
kilometres north of Baghdad, the only indication
that this is still a country at war is the tall
concrete blast walls, featuring bucolic murals, that
protect government buildings and major hotels from
bombs.
Still, saving the citadel is a tall order. Of its
more than 800 homes, "no more than 20 are in an
acceptable state," said Mohamed Djelid, Director and
UNESCO Representative for Iraq.
"You have now a very important monument . . . in the
heart of the city and it is dead," said Shireen
Sherzad, who heads newly formed committee leading
restoration efforts and is also an adviser to the
Kurdistan region's prime minister, Nechirvan
Barzani.
Also, Sherzad estimates it will cost US$35 million
for the initial three years of the project, and for
now, "We don't have any funding resources."
But all agree that the citadel, with its three
mosques, its 650-year-old hammam, or Turkish bath,
and homes with painted interiors and elegant arches,
needs urgent attention.
The situation "is very critical. All the houses are
crooked" and liable to collapse when it rains, says
Ihsan al-Totinjy, the representative of a Czech
company helping in restoration efforts and using
digital imagery to map out the site.
The company, Gema Art Group, has taken more than 200
photos inside the citadel and another 250 outside,
along with satellite images and 90 photos from a
military helicopter, it said in a 2007 report.
Before this mapping project, the most recent plan of
the citadel was a map from the 1920s.
The company is also creating a virtual
three-dimensional model, expected to be completed by
the end of February, that will help pinpoint
restoration needs.
Across Iraq, cultural and archeological treasures
are at risk - at best neglected, at worst looted,
vandalized and bombed.
The International Council of Monuments and Sites, a
Paris-based nongovernmental organization of experts,
listed the citadel in its 2004-5 report on
endangered sites in Iraq as one of five cases "where
the damage was so serious that one can talk of
cultural genocide."
Little is known about the early inhabitants of Irbil
but the citadel's secret is water - an abundant
supply has maintained civilization after
civilization.
The site "is a rich historical repository holding
evidence of many millennia of habitation, more than
8,000 years old, making it the longest continuously
inhabited site in the world," said UNESCO's Djelid.
The citadel sits atop a roughly 30-metre-high mound
formed by layers of successive settlements,
including Assyrians, Akkadians, Babylonians,
Persians and Greeks.
The epic Battle of Gaugamela, in which Alexander the
Great defeated the Persian King Darius in 331 B.C.,
is believed to have been fought just 32 kilometres
to the north, local authorities say.
The site has never been fully excavated. Recent
geophysical tests have revealed what some believe
could be an ancient temple buried beneath the centre
of the citadel,www.ekurd.net
said Kanan Mufti,
general director for archeology of the regional
government's Culture Ministry. Part of the project
includes mapping areas for future archeological
excavation.
But there is much to be done before then.
Until little more than a year ago, the citadel was
home to Erbil's poorest. Most earlier inhabitants
left in the mid-20th century as they grew prosperous
and built bigger homes on the plains below, said
Mufti, who was born in the citadel and whose
ancestors lived there for 500 years.
The squatters - including refugees who fled Saddam
Hussein's onslaught against the Kurds in the 1980s -
lived crammed into 10 hectares between the fortified
walls. With no sewage or drainage, the water seeped
into the earth, eroding the slopes on the citadel's
supporting slopes.
"Every day 750,000 litres of water were damaging the
citadel," Mufti said.
Even the buildings themselves changed as inhabitants
divided rooms and built extensions.
Without intervention, the citadel was doomed. So in
November 2006, the 840 families living there were
each offered a plot of land outside the city, with
electricity, sewage and water and $4,000 toward
building a new home, said Erbil Governor Naouzet
Hadi. All agreed.
The city also prevailed upon one family to accept
compensation but stay in their citadel home to
ensure there is no break in the site's continuous
habitation, and to manage the pumps that control the
water flow.
"I don't feel lonely - I like it here," said Hadida
Hamademin Kader, who still lives with her seven
children in a house near the centre. The plan to
renovate the citadel "has made us very happy," she
said, pouring strong, sweet tea for visitors.
Sherzad acknowledges there's a long way to go, but
says restoring the citadel is crucial.
"It is for all mankind," she said. "For Kurdistan,
it's our pride."
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On the Net: High Commission for Erbil Citadel
Revitalization:
www.erbilcitadel.org
(under construction)
ICOMOS World Report 2004-2005 on monuments and sites
in danger:
http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2004/nat-reports.htm
AP
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