(Formerly Kurdistan Iraq Tours)

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30 YEARS​ JOURNEYING THROUGH THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

National Geographic on Kurdistan

From the February 1909 issue onwards National Geographic Magazine published more than ten articles with direct reference to Kurdistan.

123 years of National Geographic Magazine are available on DVD-ROM or external hard disk beginning with the first issue in 1888 through 2011 for about $50. This set has ‘search’ and other helpful functions.

The Kurds in Control 

January 2006  
Features "The Other Iraq".  It's all there in black and white text, and convincing color photographs by Ed Kashi.

The Dawn of Humans:  Neandertals   

January 1996   
Features the Shanidar Cave, about a 2-hour drive from Erbil, where 50,000-year old Neandertal skeletons were found buried according to ritual, with flowers, the earliest indication of human-like beings having feelings for each other.

Struggle of the Kurds   

August 1992  
Focuses on the plight of Kurds following mass exodus into the wintry mountains along the Turkey and Iran borders - text by Christopher Hitchens, with photos by Ed Kashi who also produced the photos for the January 2006 NatGeo article.

We Who Face Death 
 
March 1975  
Article on the peshmerga is particularly important because, though it was written earlier that year, it was published the same month as the Algiers accords between Saddam Hussein and the Shah of Iran that led to the collapse of the Kurdish revolution that began in 1961.  Many thousands fled their homeland in Iraq to Iran and other neighboring places, and then to many parts of the world, particularly Europe and North America.

In this issue, the author met with Mustafa Barzani and wrote, "The Kurds, he declared, were struggling not only for their own freedom but also for that of everyone in Iraq.  The Baathist Government in Baghdad, he went on, was the Kurds' only foe. 'We want nothing more than an autonomous Kurdistan within a democratic Iraq.'

West from the Khyber Pass 
 
July 1958 
By William O. Douglas 
Part 1 of a road journey from Karachi (Pakistan) to Istanbul via Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq - through Khanaquin to Baghdad.

During the summer of 1957 United States Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas with only his wife and another woman drove from Karachi (Pakistan) to Istanbul in a 1956 Chevrolet station wagon.

Station Wagon Odyssey: Baghdad to Istanbul  

January 1959  
By William O. Douglas  
Part 2 of a road journey from Karachi (Pakistan) to Istanbul via Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq – from Baghdad to Kirkuk, Mosul, Hatra, Yezidis – Baidhra and Lalish, Tel Kayf, Erbil, Hamilton Road to Hajj Omran, and back into Iran to Turkey.

Iraq – Where Oil and Water Mix
   
October 1958  
Talks about Iraq’s short-term resources (oil) being used to develop its long-term resources (water), a 1950 law that allocates 70% of national revenue to infrastructure development projects.

Welcome!

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Unfortunately, the Guide to Kurdistan is no longer available. Only a few of the 20,000 copies originally printed remain. 

The exciting news is that we are introducing two unique guides-a revised edition of the Kurdistan Guide and the first ever full-color Guide to the Republic of Iraq. These two volumes will not only cover more than 500 archeological sites but also delve into the fascinating cultures of Iraq, such as the Yezidis and the Marsh Arabs. 

The guides will be published initially in three languages, along with an electronic version, and will feature the latest mapping technology and other innovative features. While there are a few smaller guides to the region, none have ever presented Iraq in the manner in which these elegant two-volume guides will.  

 Upon completion, the Guides will be launched in several locations worldwide, including London, Washington DC, and locally in Erbil and Baghdad, Iraq. The launches will be coordinated with a public relations campaign aimed at bringing the wonders of Iraq to the world and the world to the wonders of Iraq.  

The new set of Guides will be published in late 2025. Much of the production work has been completed, and we are now at a crucial stage of obtaining sponsors for this approximately two million USD project. Please sign up below if you wish to be notified when the Guide is available.  t box. Click again or double click to start editing the text.

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