It’s hard to believe I’m in Iraq. I’m floating in an infinity pool high up on Korek Mountain in the Kurdistan Region. A little more than 42 miles away through the haze is Iraq’s tri-point border with Turkey and Iran. The pool, along with a bowling alley, games arcade and wood-paneled bar, is part of the new Radisson Blu Resort & Spa Korek Mountain, currently Iraqi Kurdistan’s smartest hotel, accessed via the sleek Korek Teleferic cable car. During my stay, the only other guests are a couple of Iraqi families enjoying the cooler mountain air.
When I first tell people I’m traveling to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, I cause a tremor of concern. Friends tell me it’s dangerous. Do I have a plan in case I get kidnapped? Is it really necessary? My parents, intrepid travelers who once took a public bus through Turkey to Aleppo in Syria, think it’s wonderfully exciting. But as more people question my choice, more doubts creep in. In the end, I stop telling anyone.
“We’re in the business of myth-busting,” Sozan Mirawdaly tells me when we speak on Zoom a few weeks before my trip. A Kurdish-Canadian former journalist and communications expert, Sozan moved to Erbil to work with Visit Kurdistan. “My whole life I’ve been wanting people to know about this place—and to share our culture,” she tells me. “As a journalist, the way that manifested was by reporting often painful stories, but this is a chance to express our beautiful nature and hospitality in a more joyful, and maybe more effective, way.”
There are plenty of reasons to visit Kurdistan: spectacular natural scenery, an extensive network of hiking trails, ancient and modern religious sites, direct flights from places like Dubai, Istanbul, and Athens, visa on arrival for citizens of more than 50 countries, and residents who welcome visitors with warmth and curiosity. Kurdistan is serious about safety and security, and is a calm spot in a volatile region, with its own president, government, border authorities and security forces. But it still has plenty of myths to bust.
I arrive on a three-hour flight from Dubai. Erbil, or Hawler, to use its Kurdish name, is one of the world’s longest continuously inhabited cities, but it is also modernizing rapidly. Cranes dot the horizon and new developments—such as the shiny London Towers, home to a Land Rover dealership—are reshaping its ancient skyline. In the centre of Erbil, the fortress-like Citadel, a Unesco World Heritage Site inhabited for more than 6,000 years, is currently undergoing a lengthy restoration.