KRG rehabilitates Lalish Temple, the oldest existing site in the area

Shafaq News/ Kurdistan's Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs launched a Yazidi temple rehabilitation project.

In a press conference held on this occasion, Minister Pshtiwan Sadiq said that the project aims to rehabilitate a part of Lalish Temple, the largest and oldest in the world.

"The Yazidis deserve the best services; they were subjected to ISIS terrorism, so compensating them financially and morally is the responsibility of the Kurdistan Regional Government," Sadiq said.

The Minister affirmed that the Kurdistan Region is a place for all components and "no religious conflicts had happened here throughout history."

Sadiq stressed that more than a million Muslims from Iraq's regions and cities had turned to Kurdistan when ISIS had targeted people from all religions and sects.

Lalish Temple is located in the Shikhan district in Nineveh Governorate, about 60 km northwest of Nineveh and about 40 km from Duhok Governorate in northern Iraq.

Lalish Temple is considered the main temple of the Yazidi religion; Yazidis visit it from all over the world.

According to WHC, "Many travelers and writers who wrote the history of this temple have provided many interpretations of its origin and foundation. the archaeological researcher Abd al-Raqeeb Yusuf described the temple as the oldest existing site in the area. “

Lalish Temple, which includes the tomb of Sheikh Uday bin Musafir al-Hakari, is a rectangular building measuring (30 x 12) m. The temple has been exposed to expansion and increases during its long life.

A lot of conservation work was done for the temple, the last of which was in 1979, and one of the serious threats that the temple faced happened when the terrorist organization (ISIS) occupied the Sinjar district in June 2014. WHC said.

In addition to the terrorist massacres carried out by the organization against the Yezidi population in the region, the terrorist organization destroyed 39 dome buildings and shrines belonging to the Yezidis.

With the liberation of the region, efforts are being made to rebuild and rehabilitate the sites that were damaged due to the existence of the terrorist organization. Campaigns for the conservation and rehabilitation of the Lalish Temple were carried out with local support and financing from the private sector.

The German company Bosnick has also carried out conservation and restoration work for the temple. Also, efforts focused now to establish infrastructure facilities for the site, mainly since the temple is visited by many people from countries in the world and the temple is the tomb of Sheikh Uday bin Musafir, holy to followers of the religion, as it is the seat of the Spiritual Council of the Yazidi faith in the world where the Yezidis perform the pilgrimage at least once during their lives to Lalish temple, where the pilgrimage lasts for six days.

The Lalish Temple is also part of the Tentative list of Iraq to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.