Category: Middle East
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Iraq – Jailhouse Blues
We crossed the border in search of cheaper accommodation. We never realised it would be free. The first in three parts of this compelling first-hand account of life in an Iraqi Prison.
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Gaza – The Eve Of War
The first set of gates slammed shut, controlled by anonymous operators watching us on CCTV. There was an ominous silence. We were in no man’s land, caught between two countries.
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Northern Iraq – There And Back Again
The “Hamilton route”, named after the New Zealand engineer who designed it, links both Iraq and Iran through astonishing mountain landscapes, deep in the heart of Kurdistan.
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Iraq – Lalish And The Yezidi Kurds
Lalish: the Kurds´ hidden treasure in northern Iraq Safe in the Kurdish haven of northern Iraq, but still only 50 km north of war-torn Mosul, lies Lalish, the Yezidi Kurds´ holiest shrine. Visiting this particular site, tantamount to the Catholics´ Vatican or Muslims’ Mecca, had become an obsession since I first came across Yezidi Kurds…
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Nomads Of Ararat – Return To The Mountain
In a small corner of East Turkey, just a stone’s throw from the Iranian border, exists a race of semi-nomadic folk called the Jelali. The Jelali follow a lifestyle founded on livestock farming across a mountainous landscape that includes Mount Ararat, the fabled resting place of Noah’s Ark; Little Ararat, a smaller version of its…
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Turkey to Iraq – The Hills Have Eyes
“It’s perfectly safe”. With this final reassurance (from a reliable source) ringing in our ears, we set off on our (supposedly) 7 ½ hour journey to Iraq. Thirteen hours later, I flopped down on my hotel bed in Zhako and fell into a blissful slumber. This is the story of those thirteen hours. We set…