Duhok
— — a city the mountains lean down to meet.
Not only on a wall.
“A Kurdish city held in a bowl of limestone ridges, where the Tigris-bound Khabur tributaries run cold off Mount Zagros foothills. The dam on the north side widens into a green reservoir locals walk on Fridays. Old quarters of low sandstone houses, newer university blocks, a bazaar that smells of cardamom and grilled lamb. Snow stays on the surrounding peaks into April. The light, late in the day, takes the colour the ridges give it. from the studio
Duhok, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Duhok is the seat of Duhok Governorate in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq, roughly 75 kilometres south of the Turkish border and about 470 kilometres north of Baghdad. The city sits at roughly 588 metres elevation, cupped between two ridges of the Zagros foothills, with Mount Spi to the north. The Duhok Dam, completed in 1988 on a tributary of the Khabur River, forms the reservoir at the city's northern edge. The University of Duhok was founded in 1992 and remains the region's principal research institution.
The ridges around Duhok are limestone and dolomite, folded into the Zagros range during the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian plates. Old houses in the city centre are built from the same pale stone quarried locally, which carries the warm cast you see in the artwork. The Mam Rashan and Sulav passes north of town cut through some of the same rock. Hewa Park and the Dream City development along the dam shoreline give the broadest view back across the city to the southern ridge.
Spring and autumn are the kindest seasons. Summer temperatures regularly clear 40°C; January nights drop below freezing. The Erbil and Duhok international airports both connect through Istanbul, Doha, or Frankfurt; the road from Erbil is about two and a half hours. The city is the gateway to Amadiya, Lalish (the holiest Yazidi shrine), and the Gali Ali Beg waterfall in Soran. The Kurdistan Regional Government issues visas on arrival to most Western passport holders.