Rawanduz & its Canyon
Rawanduz
A historic mountain town and former capital of the Soran Emirate, perched on the edge of a gorge once described as the finest in Asia.
About
Rawanduz sits about 123 kilometres northeast of Erbil on a spur almost encircled by a deep river gorge. Until 1836 it was the capital of the Kurdish Soran Emirate, and its history reaches back to Assyrian-era trade routes. Road engineer A. M. Hamilton, who built the famous Hamilton Road from Erbil to the Iranian border between 1928 and 1932, described the Rawanduz gorge as one said to be the finest in Asia.