The Karduchoi (Kurds)

Deep in the most remote and inaccessible mountains of Kurdistan called the Gabar Mountains, the Kurdish Freedom Fighters of the HPG/PKK (Peshmerga) have discovered ancient places and artifacts, thought to be of Gordyene or Korduchoi (Modern: Kurd) origin, that have laid on the ground or in caves for thousands of years undiscovered.

"Who built it, and when? Why did they go to all the trouble to cut through solid rock and gain access to this remote canyon? (By the way, we know that it's remote--very remote--because otherwise the PKK guerrillas wouldn't be there.) I am no expert on this area--probably situated in the mountains of Bohtan: Cudi Dagh (pron. Judi Daah) and Gabar Dagh, near the town of Sirnak--but I have read a substantial amount of the travel literature, and I know of no Western traveler who has explored this area and published pictures like these. Freya Stark did pass this way (on a mule) in the 1950s, but she took a route further north, close to the present-day motor road that runs west from Hakkari to Sirnak and Cizre, on the Tigris. In the 19th century Gertrude Bell explored the south slopes of Judi Dagh looking for the shrine and tomb of Noah (also, as we will see, photographed by the PKK), but she didn't penetrate the mountains themselves. And in 1843 Asahel Grant, M.D., of Utica and Waterville, New York, rode into the western, more settled side, to meet Bedr Khan Bey, the Kurdish emir of Bohtan and progenitor of the Bedirhan clan who have been so prominent in modern Kurdish history.

There was, however, one group of Westerners which passed directly through the very heart of these same mountains. Their passage was hardly a secret and certainly not easy. They were the Ten Thousand Greeks, stranded mercenaries trying to make their way home from the Battle of Cunaxa, near Babylon, in 401 B.C. Their journey is described in the Anabasis of Xenophon.

When they first encountered the villages of the mountain people, the Greeks left them untouched, in hopes that the natives would let them pass unhindered. Their hopes were disappointed. In the seven days it took them to traverse the mountains of the Karduchoi, generally thought to be the antecedents of the Kurds, the Greeks suffered more than in all the battles they had previously fought. The Karduchoi were everywhere, rolling great rocks down upon them, harassing their rear and flanks, shooting at them with bows six feet long and powerful enough to pierce armor with their arrows. It was, as Xenophon describes it, a hell on earth, complete with thunderstorms, rain, and snow: a famous episode in a justifiably famous book. Up to now I'm not aware that anyone has published evidence of the Karduchoi and their society. With these photographs I believe that the guerrillas of the PKK have done just that. "

Gordon Taylo 2007