Sinjar Mountains
| Sinjar | |
|---|---|
 Satellite picture of Sinjar Mountains | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,356 m (4,449 ft) |
| Geography | |
  Sinjar | |
The Sinjar Mountains[1] (Arabic: جبل سنجار;[2] also Shengar/Shengal Mountains; Kurdish: چیای شهنگال/شهنگار) are a single ridge of mountains 100 kilometers (60 miles) long[3] located primarily in Nineveh Governorate in northwestern Iraq, with its Western tip located in Syria.[4] The city of Sinjar is just south of the range.
Geology
The mountain is composed of Upper and Middle Miocene sediments. The mountain is a groundwater recharge area and should have good quality water, although away from the mountain groundwater quality is poor. Quantities are sufficient for agricultural and stock use.[5] Sinjarite, a hygroscopic soft pink mineral related with Antarcticite, was discovered in braided wadi filling in an area of the mountain's limestones near Sinjar.[4]
Population and history
The mountains have historically been mainly inhabited by Yazidis[6] who venerate them and consider the highest to be the place where Noah's Ark settled after the biblical flood.[7]
In August 2014 an estimated 40,000 Yazidis fled to the mountains following attacks by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) forces on the city of Sinjar.[8] As the Yazidi refugees on the mountain faced what a representative called a "genocide" by the Islamists, American forces airdropped supplies of water and food.[9] Kurdish troops and officials saved most of the refugees by opening a corridor from the mountains into nearby Syria and from there into Iraqi Kurdistan, though 300 Yasidi women were taken as slaves and over 500 men, women and children were killed, some beheaded or buried alive in the foothills as part of an effort by the Islamists to instill terror and to desecrate the mountain the Yasidi consider sacred.[9] [10] [11]
Notes
- ^ Jabal Sinjār (Approved) at GEOnet Names Server, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- ^ جبل سنجار (Native Script) at GEOnet Names Server, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
- ^ Guest, John S. (1993). Survival Among The Kurds: A History of the Yezidis (revised ed.). London: Kegan Paul International. p. 3isbn=978-0-7103-0456-8.
- ^ a b Aljubouri, Zeki A.; Aldabbagh, Salim M. (1980), "Sinjarite, a new mineral from Iraq" (PDF), Mineralogical Magazine, 43: 643–645
{{citation}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Al-Sawaf, FDS; (1977) Hydrogeology of South Sinjar Plain Northwest Iraq. Doctoral thesis, University of London
- ^ Fuccaro, Nelida (1999). The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq. London: I.B.Tauris. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-1-86064-170-1.
- ^ Parry, Oswald Hutton (1895). Six Months in a Syrian Monastery: Being the Record of a Visit to the Head Quarters of the Syrian Church in Mesopotamia: With Some Account of the Yazidis Or Devil Worshippers of Mosul and El Jilwah, Their Sacred Book. London: H. Cox. p. 381. OCLC 3968331.
- ^ Martin Chulov (3 August 2014). "40,000 Iraqis stranded on mountain as Isis jihadists threaten death". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
- ^ a b "Iraq crisis: No quick fix, Barack Obama warns". BBC News. 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-08-09.
- ^ "Etat islamique en Irak : décapités, crucifiés ou exécutés, les yézidis sont massacrés par les djihadistes" (in French)). Atlantico. 9 August 2014. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ "Irak: les yazidis fuient les atrocités des djihadistes". Le Figaro (in French). 10 August 2014. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014.
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