Kurdshop - Kurdistan is a blessed country and it is the original geographical land of many civilizations. Most of the religious, minority, and various nations have once inhabited here and it is considered to be among the most important places for living. Sometimes some of the civilizations have migrated to other lands or they had been forced to dislocate, however, their structures, cultures, and monuments have not vanished and each nation has added something new to the ancient features. Thus, this land's culture has grown richer.
In Kurdistan, Rahha is one of the blessed cities that is considered to possess a rich culture and a blessed nature. This city's land has hosted several civilizations and religions. There are the remains of old structures and those civilizations' traces in Rahha. One of those cities that have hosted several civilizations is Sho'ayb City.
Sho'ayb City is a part of the Harani region near Rahha City in the North part of Kurdistan. According to the resources, the ancient city of Sho'ayb has remained from the time of Sho'ayb, the prophet. Sho'ayb, the Medias' prophet, lived in this city for some time and some say that he died there, too. This indicates that the history of this old city goes back to 1500 B.C. During the Roman Empire, they gave this city another name but there is not any source to confirm it. Even after the Romans, people kept on living in this city and it is believed that the Haran people spent their summers in Sho'ayb city.
When you look at this city from the outside, it looks like a dried plain with some ruins however, when you get closer, you could see an ancient history hidden underneath it. There are various caves in different sizes in this city. It is said that Sho'ayb, the prophet, lived in one of these caves. He also had used the cave as a temple, so, many tourists visit this place.
On the other hand, according to many sources, Sho'ayb City was the place where Sho'ay and Moses, the prophet, met. In the "Black Book", Sho'ayb has a high rank. He was Moses' father-in-law and in Torah scripts he is mentioned by the name of Petro. Based on Torah, Petro or Sho'ayb was the leader of a community who used to worship idols but Sho'ayb tried to preach God's religion and make them worship God which resulted in him being criticized by his people and they avoided him.
There are several scripts and carved statues on the stones in the old city of Sho'ayb, each of them retails a story and these stories have remained to this day but no detailed research has been conducted on them. Some sources claim that these scripts have been written by the Assyrians in Syriac, but what is written in the texts is still not known. If there was any research, many stories would have been revealed in Sho'ayb City since the old caves of this city are not just regular caves. Some of them have very complicated paths that people may get lost inside them. No one knows if these caves are created naturally in this way or if they have been built on purpose to be so complicated. Perhaps these caves had been made in this way to protect the people of the city or maybe these mysterious caves were a trap.
This city is surrounded with a wall. The architecture of the buildings is the same as the Romans and their roof tops look like triangles. The city can be considered as a large one and there are tombs that had been made inside the rocks. This ancient city that hosts many tourists, like many other places in Kurdistan, becomes less and less stable due to a lack of services. Since there is no plan for preserving it, no one can research on this city. This millennium history is ruining in front of the world's eyes and it is being destructed gradually without any attempts to protect it.
Sho'ayb City looks forward to being protected for its ancient history and mysterious story. Since history has fulfilled its duty and has preserved this city for us, we need to go back to this city and collect as much information as possible.
