Wender·Vista
Kirkuk
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileIraq
in northern Iraq, where the Zagros foothills begin

Kirkuk

— a citadel on a hill of fire.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A city on a mound that has been lived on for five thousand years. The citadel rises above the Khasa River and the streets of the old town. Beyond the edges lies Baba Gurgur, the oil field where a fire has burned in the open ground for as long as anyone has measured. Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, and Assyrian families have all held this place.

from the studio
Kirkuk
— bring it home

Kirkuk, 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.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

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.

— about Kirkuk

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Kirkuk lies in northern Iraq about 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, on a plain between the Lesser Zab and the Diyala rivers where the foothills of the Zagros begin to lift. The Khasa River cuts through the centre. The Kirkuk Governorate holds roughly one and a half million people and the city itself somewhere above a million, distributed among Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, and Assyrian communities. The city has been the disputed administrative seat between the federal Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region since 2003, a status still unsettled.

— the stone

The Kirkuk Citadel sits on an artificial mound roughly 850 metres long and 500 wide, raised over more than five thousand years of continuous occupation; archaeological surveys place the earliest layers around 3000 BC. Successive Assyrian, Median, Achaemenid, Sasanian, Abbasid, and Ottoman quarters lie beneath the visible buildings, which include the Red Mosque, the tomb traditionally identified as that of the Prophet Daniel, and the Ulu Cami. A restoration programme led by the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage has been underway since the 2010s.

— the light

At Baba Gurgur, about 16 kilometres northwest of the city, natural gas seeping from a fracture in the surface has burned continuously for thousands of years; Herodotus and later Plutarch both noted fires in this part of Mesopotamia. Drillers struck the field in October 1927, producing the first commercial oil in Iraq and one of the largest single discoveries of its era. The flares from the field still light the night sky over the western plain, visible from the citadel walls on a clear evening.

— where
Iraq · Kirkuk Governorate
— elevation
350 m · 1,148 ft
— position
35.4681° N · 44.3922° E
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
16 km NW
Baba Gurgur
eternal-fire oil field
85 km N
Erbil
Kurdistan Region capital
150 km NE
Sulaymaniyah
regional city
130 km SW
Tikrit
Salah ad-Din capital
240 km S
Baghdad
national capital
N
Kirkuk
Baba Gurgur
Erbil
Sulaymaniyah
Tikrit
Baghdad
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Kirkuk — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

In northern Iraq, about 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, on the plain between the Lesser Zab and the Diyala rivers where the foothills of the Zagros range begin to rise.

An artificial mound roughly 850 metres long, raised over more than five thousand years of continuous occupation. It carries Assyrian, Sasanian, Abbasid, and Ottoman layers, and a tomb traditionally identified as that of the Prophet Daniel.

An oil field about 16 kilometres northwest of Kirkuk where natural gas seeping from a surface fracture has burned in the open for thousands of years. Drilling there in 1927 produced the first commercial oil in Iraq.

Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Assyrian Christians, with smaller Chaldean and Armenian communities. The city holds roughly one million people and has been multi-ethnic for centuries, which shapes its disputed administrative status today.

Because the Iraqi constitution of 2005 left the governorate's affiliation to a referendum that has not been held. The city is administered by federal Iraq, but the Kurdistan Region maintains a long-standing claim.

— about the piece in your home

It has been a meaningful gift for our customers across the Iraqi, Kurdish, and Assyrian diasporas. A Small or Medium with a handwritten note from the studio reads well in a study or hallway.

The ochre, citadel-stone, and lamp-amber palette settles into warm Traditional, Mediterranean, and Mid-century rooms. The Voynich treatment also reads well against carved wood and brass in a heritage Levantine interior.

Yes. Stone, citadel, and old-city subjects have been a steady thread in the earth-tone cycle of the last several years, and a strong place anchor reads well in a room built around terracotta and brass.

A single Large or a 4-tile Mural sits comfortably above a standard sofa. A 9-tile Mural reads across a longer wall above a console without crowding.

Yes, in Dura Satin or Matte finish. Both are scratch-resistant and stand up to moisture for a backsplash, a powder room, or a shower wall.

A microfibre cloth and water. No solvent and no abrasive; the colour lives in the ceramic surface and the finish over it is thin.

Yes. Reid Wender is the curator and the eye behind every WenderVista piece, hand-finished in our Knoxville studio. There is no licensing and no third-party stock.

— if this one stayed with you

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