Ras al-Khafji is a town on the border between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It lies in what was, before 1970, the Saudi Arabian–Kuwaiti neutral zone. It was pretty easy to cross the border. On the Kuwaiti side, we just stamped the passport and CPD and left the border within minutes. On Saudi...
After lengthy procedures at the border (see below), we arrived in the capital of Kuwait. The city lies on the southern shore of Kuwait Bay of the Persian Gulf. City was founded at the beginning of the 18th century by a group of families who migrated to the coast from the interior of the...
The border in Kalar is located just behind the city. At the first Kurdish border on Road 4, they told us that they would not allow us to cross, and they sent us over the bridge to another border checkpoint. They just controlled passports there (with our Federal Iraq visa) and warned us...
Our next stop was Al-Sulaymāniyyah, a city in northeastern Iraq in the Kurdistan region close to the Iranian border. The town lies on the Tānjarō River and the lower slopes of the Azmar Dāgh range. It experiences severe temperature extremes in summer and winter. While economic and...
In Erbil, we exchanged money (500 EUR / 803000 IQD) and took a diesel at our favorite North Light Oil station (1350 IQD / liter). Then we started our long scenic drive through one of the most beautiful regions of Kurdistan. We drove around Koya, surrounded by the Bawaji and Haibat Sultan...
After some research and heavy thinking, we drove to Mosul in northwestern Iraq. From its original site on the western bank of the Tigris River, the modern city expanded to the eastern bank and now encircles the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. Probably built on the site of...
We spent a few days in Erbil, one of the most ancient cities in the world, dating back at least to 2300 BC. Erbil has long been an important trade center, and It has been inhabited, over the millennia, by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Mongols, and Ottoman Turks. It was already an ancient...
We spent two nights in the breathtakingly beautiful little historic town of Akre. The town was built on the side of a mountain range at the edge of the Nineveh Plains by the Kurdish Prince Zand in 580 BC. It was traditionally a mixed town of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Nowadays, Akre...
If you read our post about the horrible experience at the Turkish border crossing, then here you will find the second part from the Kurdish side, where we spent another 6 hours. Maybe this little guide will help you to cross it more smoothly than us. After crossing the bridge, you will...
From our parking location behind Eruh, it took us two hours to get to Cizre. We did good shopping in Migros, and after that, we decided to take the cake with coffee and leave the town around 10 pm towards the Ibrahim Khalil border. It was supposed to be the easiest crossing between Iraqi...