World Heritage Identification Number: 1437
World Heritage since: 2014
Category: Cultural Heritage
WHE Type: Archaeological Sites
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇮🇶 Iraq
Continent: Asia
UNESCO World Region: Arab States
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Erbil Citadel: An Enduring Testament to Ancient Civilizations
The Erbil Citadel, nestled atop a towering ovoid-shaped tell in the heart of the Kurdistan region, serves as a captivating testament to the rich cultural heritage and enduring legacy of ancient civilizations. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, this fortified settlement offers a unique blend of history, architecture, and urban planning that has captivated visitors for millennia.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Erbil Citadel is a fortified settlement on top of an imposing ovoid-shaped tell (a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot) in the Kurdistan region, Erbil Governorate. A continuous wall of tall 19th-century façades still conveys the visual impression of an impregnable fortress, dominating the city of Erbil. The citadel features a peculiar fan-like pattern dating back to Erbil’s late Ottoman phase. Written and iconographic historical records document the antiquity of settlement on the site – Erbil corresponds to ancient Arbela, an important Assyrian political and religious centre – while archaeological finds and investigations suggest that the mound conceals the levels and remains of previous settlements.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
Criterion (iv): Erbil Citadel is an imposing example of a multilayered archaeological mound still physically emerging from the surrounding landscape. The physical structure of the Citadel town is characterized by the permanence of the Ottoman period urban form and street pattern on top of the mound. Its shape with definite boundaries has in part dictated the transformations of the urban fabric which still exhibits the typical Ottoman period traditional articulation in functional districts and comprises some fine examples of residential buildings dating back to the 19th – 20th centuries, and, to a lesser degree, to the 18th century.
Encyclopedia Record: Citadel of Erbil
The Citadel of Erbil, locally called Qellat, is a tell or occupied mound, and the historical city centre of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The citadel was added to the World Heritage List on 21 June 2014.Additional Site Details
Area: 15.6 hectares
Number of Components: 1
Coordinates: 36.1911111111 , 44.0091666667
Image
© jan kurdistani, CC BY-SA 2.0 Resized from original. (This derivative is under the same CC BY-SA license.)
