Erbil Citadel

I visited this Iraqi Kurdistan WHS in September 2024. Up till not long ago, visitors arriving in Iraqi Kurdistan could not visit the rest of Federal Iraq but in 2024 this is no longer the case, even though you certainly feel as if you're visiting a different country when visiting from Baghdad. The location of the Erbil citadel, built on top of a high multilayered tell, makes it really pleasant to gaze at its exterior details towards sunrise or sunset. In the morning, you'll see all types of vendors setting up their wares, while towards sunset the whole modern square with fountains gets very lively with traditional coffee sellers in full costume roaming around locals, expats and tourists who gather there.

The citadel's claim to be the "the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world" is still true thanks to one family who lives inside the high fortified walls. There are two guarded ramps leading to the citadel (and an eastern ramp which has been closed down) and nobody (except the one family) can enter the citadel before sunrise and after sunset. A central straight road from the northern Ahmadi gate to the southern Grand Gate was made after demolishing some of the houses and most of the illegal houses built beneath the tell have been cleared, leaving a rather ghost-town or museum feeling to the place. Being an Ottoman settlement, it reminded me a bit of Diyarbakir in Turkish Kurdistan although it lacked the monuments found in the …

Visited on November 4th 2022.

The citadel is a museal site. It is said that one family still lives here, but to the visitor it seems deserted. There are a couple of small sleepy one room museums, and a tourist souvenir shop. The citadel is more impressive from the street level looking up. Once inside it does not have much to offer the visitor, besides the feeling of being present in this historic fortification. Allow 25 minutes for a visit. No entry charge.

The terraced coffe shop below the gate is a perfect place for brunch, and the teeming market below is joy to visit with all its raquous activity. 

I visited Iraqi Kurdistan in October 2018. The ancient Citadel of Erbil has possibly been occupied for 7,000 years, since the fifth millennium BCE, making Erbil one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas in the world, although that’s somewhat contrived. In 2007, all but one of the 840 families living on the citadel were evicted prior to the start of a restoration project — a single family has been allowed to remain to ensure that there would be no interruption in the seven millenniums of unbroken inhabitation of the mound.

Erbil Citadel is the first WHS within Iraqi Kurdistan, a region that may become an independent state within the foreseeable future. The site is labelled as “the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the world”. By this, it rivals better-known places such as Byblos, Damascus and Jericho. Claims like this are impossible to verify, but Erbil’s origins are certainly ancient. A better differentiator is the fact that it’s a town citadel (inhabited by people) and not a military structure.

I visited the Citadel on a Sunday morning in March 2014. I was part of a small Dutch tour group on a 10 day-tour of Iraqi Kurdistan. We entered the Citadel from the back (the North Gate) and had to pass a guard there. Our Dutch tour leader had arranged for a visit with one of the local guides, but upon entering he was nowhere to be found. That did not prove to be a big problem, as you can walk around freely in the main area. And with the help of a caretaker, we were able to open some doors and duck beneath various stretches of red tape. We also met an Iranian backpacker who was sightseeing on his own. So Erbil Citadel is now definitely open for visitors, there were also many locals around for a Sunday stroll.

I had no clear expectations of what there is to see in the Citadel’s interior. In its heyday, it was a “labyrinthine network of narrow pedestrian alleyways”. Despite the still …