Lalish Temple

Lalish Temple, the holiest place for the Yazidi community, has been added to Iraq’s Tentative List last week. It was one of my proposals for the Arab States Top 50 Missing, so I was very happy to see it appear in the official records as well. My support for Lalish stems from my visit to the site in March 2014. It was the highlight of my tour through Iraqi Kurdistan: an introduction to one of those mysterious, small Middle Eastern religions that somehow in isolation have survived for centuries. Only 5 months later the rest of the world came to know the Yazidis as well, however in much more unfortunate circumstances – as victims from the Sinjar massacre and the genocide of Yazidis by ISIS.

Lalish lies about an hour's drive from modern civilization (we left from Duhok). Unfortunately the place was covered in a dense fog when we arrived – apparently it has a lovely setting in a mountain valley. The rituals that are so abanduntly attached to this holy site already start when arriving in the main street leading up to the temple: even in the streets you can only walk barefoot. Socks were also allowed for us tourists, fortunately, as the ground was quite cold.

We were met by a local guide, a young boy who spoke English quite well. He is a member of one of two families who live permanently in Lalish. These families also supply the holy men of the religion of …