"People know so little about the Citadel because of lack of education," said Kanaan Mufti.
The "Globe" went to Minaret Park in Erbil, where the Citadel of Erbil, or Qala't, could be seen from a distance as families and couples enjoyed a cold evening walk. We asked young people what they knew about the history and timeline of the Citadel.
Karzan Mahamad, 19, a student, looked at the Citadel and gave an embarrassed smile before shaking his head. "Sorry, I don't know." Many of those spoken to said that it was the oldest continuously inhabited place in the world, but little was known about its history.
"I took the kids on a small school trip through the Citadel and told them all about its history. The way people lived and what the Citadel resembles," explained Awaz Adnan, who was on vacation in Kurdistan from Australia with her four children. "I was sad that there was no guide inside to walk us through the different places and tell us stories. My kids had questions that I didn't know how to answer myself."
Adnan pointed out that it would be helpful to have people in the Citadel who lived there before to tell their stories of how life was in their day. "They can volunteer two hours of their time once a week on a set time for anyone who is interested."
"I really don't know much about its history or exact details of its features, but I do know that I can't imagine Erbil without the Citadel," said Dlshad Abdullah, 24, a government employer who was born in Erbil. His partner from Kirkuk said in her two years in Erbil she has not visited the Citadel and she did not know much about its history. "It is the heart of Erbil" was the only comment she made.
Kotchar Mahmood, 28, a master's student, gave some information about the way of life in the Citadel and its cultural importance today. I know about it because I have written about it," he laughed.
Iman Ahmad Ramathan, visiting from Baghdad s,aid she went up to the Citadel with her family and had some knowledge about the way of life and features of the hammam (public bath) of the Citadel, its main doors and the big mosque. "We enjoyed the textile museum the most, and learned a lot about the culture," she noted. "We are guests here, so we try to know the culture here and its history, and the Citadel is a big part of this."
Kanaan Mufti, General Director for Intangible Heritage at the KRG's Ministry of Culture and Youth, explained that people know so little about the Citadel because of lack of education. "It is the responsibility of the education system, and more importantly, the family and parents must play an important role in telling their children about such places."
High Commission for Erbil Citadel Revitalization (HCECR) has created a website for the Citadel in English where it outlines the Citadel's heritage, typology and different features. The site reads: "It [Citadel] tells the story of how hundreds of past generations interacted with their natural environment and how they developed their way of life based on their cultural norms and values."
Recently, the Citadel was included as one of the 100 most-endangered cultural sites in the world by the World Monument Fund (WMF) in New York. Now there are attempts to include the Citadel in UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.
About the origins of the Citadel, the HCECR said there are archaeological indications taking its origins back 6,000 years. "The fortified town itself must have been present during the Assyrian Period (1365-612 B.C.), or some 3,000 years ago. Some archaeologists believe that the site has been settled since the Neolithic to Mid Bronze Age (6000-1500 B.C.)."
© The Kurdish Globe 2011
