Kurdshop - Khurs Valley, located in the Qosar area of Merdin in the North part of Kurdistan, is known for its lakes, resorts, and natural beauties and attracts tourists.
Khurs Valley is located on the Mardin-Qosar road and is 7 kilometers from the center of Qosar.
Some people go to the area to hear the beautiful sounds of birds, some to cool off, and some to swim in the lake.
Residents say the temperature in the area exceeds 40 degrees in the summer.
Locals also say that an area is a beautiful place for tourism, relaxation, and spending time, and it is a hidden paradise of Qosar.
With archaeological excavations in the historic cave of Uluko in the Khurs Valley, located in the Qosar region, several historical monuments and stone houses belonging to different periods have been discovered, and the purpose is to reach important signs of 200000 years ago.
The historic city of Mardin was inhabited during the Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods and has many castles, palaces, tombs, mosques, churches, and historical stone houses. Archaeological and historical excavations have also begun in a cave in the Khurs Valley in the Uluku district, led by the Mardin Museum.
Mardin Museum Directorate and Mardin Artuklu University, are searching together with a joint team for remains of ancient history in this historical cave, which is 23 meters long and 16 meters deep.
Gani Tarkan, Director of Mardin Museum, and Dr. Ergul Kodash, a member of the Department of Literature and Faculty of Archeology of Mardin's Artuklu University, conducted excavations in the ancient cave with the participation of many university students. Several tools of the Paleolithic period made of flint have been found.
Gani Tarkan, director of the Mardin Museum, said: “In excavations and research on the historic cave three periods of the Paleolithic, Upper Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, and Lower Paleolithic, and many remains of those periods have been found. Thus, the Ulukoi Cave is very important. During the Paleolithic Age materials that people used to cut and drill holes and many other remains have been found. Many tools used by people for hunting have also been obtained. We may find some bone remains of animals and people of that period. If a skeleton of a human or a human body is found, it will be a very important achievement for us. After completing the necessary research on the finds, we can determine their exact date."
“In the cave, we speculate that there was inhabited life, but with the other remains, we can determine definitive conclusions,” he also explained.
Gani Tarkan said their work process is going well and continued, "Similar to the Uluko cave, another example is rare in the world, we can say that it is the first example in northern Mesopotamia."
Also, Dr. Ergul Kodash, a member of the Department of Literature and Faculty of Archeology at the Artuklu University of Mardin, said that several signs of prehistoric archeology have been found in the cave and excavations continue and said, "I hope our work will play an important role in identifying these stages in this region and introducing it to the world of science. We can now say, and we proved that life existed in this area even before the Neolithic period, and we are talking about 200 thousand years. We have found many remains of those ancient times in four areas of Mardin. However, the history recorded and known in this cave is very important and its history has been scientifically proven. We are continuing our investigation.”