Thousands of monuments spanning four countries and ten millennia of human civilisation — documented, mapped, and preserved in a single open-access platform.
The region historically known as Mesopotamia — the land between the Tigris and Euphrates — is the cradle of human civilisation. This is where writing was invented, where the first cities rose, where the Median, Achaemenid, Sasanian, and countless other empires left their mark in stone.
Today, this heritage is scattered across four modern nations: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria. Each country documents its own monuments through its own lens, in its own language, with its own political priorities. The result is a fragmented, incomplete picture of one of the most heritage-rich landscapes on Earth.
Meanwhile, these monuments are being destroyed faster than they are being recorded — by armed conflict, dam construction, urban sprawl, neglect, looting, and deliberate cultural erasure. Communities that have safeguarded these sites for generations are being displaced. Oral histories that give meaning to stone walls are dying with their keepers.
No single institution, government, or organisation is documenting this cross-border cultural landscape comprehensively. Until now.
The Kurdish Heritage Platform approaches cultural documentation in a way no existing registry does — crossing national borders, ethnic boundaries, and linguistic barriers.
The only heritage registry that documents monuments across all four countries of the Kurdish cultural landscape (Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria) in a single searchable database.
We document Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian, Jewish, Yezidi, Greek, Roman, Islamic, and pre-Islamic heritage — respecting the diverse origins of every monument without cultural appropriation.
Every monument is documented in English, Kurmanji Kurdish (Latin script), and Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) — with Turkish, Arabic, and Persian names preserved for searchability.
Real-time threat monitoring with five endangerment levels: At Risk, Critically Endangered, Partially Destroyed, Submerged, and Destroyed or Lost. Email alerts for monitored sites.
AI accelerates research, translation, and content generation — but every published entry is reviewed and fact-checked by human editors. Technology serves scholarship, not the other way around.
All monument data is freely accessible. No paywalls, no login required. We are building toward an open API for researchers, educators, and developers worldwide.
The monuments we document span the full arc of human civilisation — from Neolithic settlements to Ottoman mosques, from Sumerian ziggurats to Kurdish castles.
Göbekli Tepe, Çatalhöyük, and the earliest known monumental architecture on Earth.
The first Iranian empire (678–549 BCE), founded by the Medes — widely regarded as ancestors of the Kurds. Centred in Ecbatana (modern Hamadan).
Founded by Cyrus the Great (half-Mede through his maternal lineage). A multi-ethnic empire spanning from Egypt to India, often mislabelled simply as "Persian".
Decentralised empires with rich architectural traditions. Rock reliefs, fire temples, palaces, and fortifications across the Kurdish highlands.
Mosques, madrasas, caravanserais, hammams, and bazaars from the Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, and Zengid periods.
The Ayyubids (founded by Saladin), Ardalan, Baban, Soran, and other Kurdish dynasties that shaped the region's architecture and culture.
Grand mosques, fortified cities, bridges, and administrative buildings from centuries of Ottoman and Safavid rule across Kurdistan.
Heritage actively threatened today by conflict, dams, urban development, and political marginalisation — documented before it disappears forever.
The Kurdish cultural landscape is not a monoculture. It is a mosaic of peoples, faiths, and civilisations that have coexisted, clashed, and created together for millennia.
Our platform documents Armenian churches, Assyrian monasteries, Jewish synagogues, Yezidi shrines, Greek temples, Roman bridges, and Islamic mosques alongside Kurdish castles and citadels. We do not claim non-Kurdish heritage as Kurdish. We document heritage within the Kurdish cultural landscape, honouring the origin and identity of each monument.
This commitment to diversity is not a disclaimer — it is foundational to our mission. The destruction of an Armenian church in Diyarbakır or an Assyrian monastery in Hakkari is a loss for all of humanity. By documenting these sites together, we create a record that no single national agency provides.
The Kurdish Heritage Platform fills a critical gap in global heritage documentation — one that academic institutions, preservation foundations, and international bodies have long recognised but no single project has addressed.
Every monument documented is a piece of human history preserved. Whether you are a researcher, a funder, a heritage professional, or someone who cares about cultural preservation — there is a place for you here.