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RAWANDUZ, Kurdistan Region - A group of Kurdish mountaineers has made hiking easier in the rugged and steep crags of Karak in Rawanduz, northeastern Erbil province.
It took the Kurdistan Mountaineering Federation a year to build more than a thousand iron staircases along the rock face that is secured with a wire rope, the first of its kind in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Zhino Rafiq and her friends drove hundreds of miles from Sulaimani to become the first group to climb the steep rock face.
"This is something new for Kurdish mountaineering," Rafiq told Rudaw’s Bakhtyar Qadir on Saturday. "Therefore, we came from Sulaimani to see it. It is amazing and very joyful when using them [the stairs] to climb."
"It is quite different from normal climbing. You must be very careful and all of your body, like your arms and legs, must be active when climbing and using these stairs," she added.
Before climbers start using the stairs, they should read billboards placed at the footsteps of the mountain guiding them where to start and advising them to use the hiking essentials including protective gear, daypacks, and headlamps.
Climbing the rocky alpine terrain, hikers can have the luxury of catching a panoramic glimpse of the region while climbing the crag.
The climbing route is three kilometers high.
The Kurdistan Region is known for its tall mountains and beautiful scenery. However, a lack of investment in conservation, landmines dating back to the Iran-Iraq war, and the ongoing conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) along the border have held back the Region’s tourist potential.
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