Displaced and refugee families in Suleimaniya ... - Kurdish Globe

The Kurdish Globe No. 314, Saturday, July 23, 2011 8Visiting Saladin'shometownGLOBE PHOTO / Qassim KhidhirThe famed Arab leaderhad roots in KurdistanA view of Dwin castle ruins near Erbil.The minute you leave thePirmam town in Erbilcity, the capital of IraqiKurdistan, on the leftside of the main street,there is a narrow sidestreet that goes throughArmawa and Zrgos villclages.Driving 10 minutesfrom Zrgos, you will seecastle ruins on a top of amountain on the left sideof the street, and on theright side, an old graveycyard. The castle and thearea are called Dwin,the hometown of Saladcdin Ayoubi. Saladin wasa Kurdish Muslim, whobecame the first sultanof Egypt and Syria, andfounded the Ayoubi Dyncnasty. He led Muslimand Arab opposition tothe Franks and other Eurcropean Crusaders in theLevant. At the height ofhis power, his sultanateincluded Egypt, Syria,Mesopotamia, Hijaz andYemen. Under his leadecership, his forces defeateced the Crusaders at theBattle of Hattin, leadingthe way to recapturingPalestine, which the Cruscsaders had seized fromthe Fatimid Egyptians 88years earlier.Internationally, thereis not much informationabout Dwin village orcity. The only mentionis that Saladin's parentscame from Dwin. Locallcly, there are some booksabout Saladin's family,how they lived and whatthey did and about Saladcdin's tribe, the Zarzary.The most notable is abook written by Kurdishhistorian Abdul KhaleqSarsam, who died twoyears ago, which saysthe castle belonged toSaladin's grandfather,Jalaladdin.The foundation of thecastle and some partsof the walls are clearlyvisible, and the castle'sguard posts are stillpartially standing. Thecastle is built of mountctain stone, one of thereasons it hasn't disappcpeared completely. Thecastle is on high groundand controlled the roadon both directions. ReneTurner — a heritage expcpert who works for Briticish Conservation andDevelopment Company,a consultancy companythat wrote the renovationmaster plan for Erbil's7,000-years-old Citadel— believes the castle andits guard posts were builtto watch and protect thevillage, which is at thefoot of the mountain, onthe river. You can stillsee remnants of the villclage that was once thehome of Saladin's grandfcfather. Out of personalinterest, Turner has visicited the site several timesand believes it has potentctial as a tourist attraction,especially if a small arcchaeological team cleansthe site and uncoversthe ground floor of thecastle. But Turner doesnot recommend rebuildicing the castle. "There isno information so far onwhat the castle lookedlike. A castle should notbe rebuilt there basedon imagination, becausethen it will become Disncney." He added, "Cleanicing the site and addingsome signs about its histctory and background ismore attractive for touricists than to rebuild thecastle based on imaginatction."A historical graveyardsits on the opposite sideof the road. Some of thegraves have inscriptions,while others are blank.Turner says the gravesdate back to differenteras. The graves at thebeginning of the graveycyard are from the era ofthe Zoroastrian, a religionand philosophy from thesixth century. The graveshave suns, daggers andswords, three symbols ofthe Zoroastrian religion.The graves beside a rockwall date back to Saladcdin's era. According tolocal legend, one of thegraves belongs to Saladcdin's grandfather. A thirdgroup of graves is around200 years old, some withbeautiful inscriptions,most notably inscriptionsfor knights.Kurdistan was listedamong the top 20 touristdestinations in 2010 byNational Geographic andThe Washington Post.Kurdistan has more than3,000 heritage sites and98 percent of them havenot yet been cleaned, rescstored or excavated.156,179 tourists visited Kurdistan in JuneDirector of Tourism Affcfairs of General Board ofTourism of the Kurdistctan Region Omed Kaifi,told the Globe 108,442tourists visited Erbil inJune, while 22,313 touricists visited Duhok and25,964 visited Suleimcmaniya.The total was 156,179visitors in June, eventhough the Region'sschool examination percriod had not ended.According to 2007 estctimates, 337,000 touricists visited KurdistanRegion. In 2010, visitorsto the Region numbered1,313,000. “So, thenumber of tourists hasdramatically increasedin 2010. This is a clearmessage that year afteryear, the numbers willincrease,” said Kaifi.Based on visitorsspending $100 each,for 2010 the contributction to the KurdistanRegion economy was$131,300,000.