Kaisary Nakieb

Kaisary Nakieb

Posted by Mita on December 23, 2013 in kurdistan, market, northern iraq,

I have been to Kaisary Nakieb (Qaysary Nakieb) several times to look around and bought knitting yarns but I did not notice the historical background of this place until I read a short article about it recently. 

Kaisary Nakieb entrance

Kaisary Nakieb is a market inside Sulaymani Bazaar (close to the way to the goldsmith stores). It is such a crowded place and there are so many things that you can find there: cosmetics, sewing kits, school supplies, and etc. It was built by Mustafa al Naqib in 1900 B.C and refer to the Istambul (Turkish) market architecture. 

The ceiling

I did not notice the design and the style of the building. But then, after the last visit, I managed to see some parts that showed the style, especially the ceilings. The building had been renovated and reconstructed here and there, but somehow you can still see the original design.

Beautiful style isn't it?

Another entrance gate to get inside the Kaisary Nakieb

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Visiting Zamwa Gallery

Visiting Zamwa Gallery

Posted by Mita on December 23, 2013 in arts, mondar mandir, northern iraq,

It is a beautiful sunny winter day. My hubby and I decided to wander around Sulaymani Bazaar.

I have been wanting to go to Zamwa Gallery but my hubby forgot the location. Accidentally, we met one of my hubby's student, we chatted and he showed the way to the gallery (and my hubby immediately remember the way to that hidden gallery!). Very nice!

Zamwa gallery is located in the Bazaar area, not far from the Rasha Mall (sorry, I don't really know how to give you a direction but you can see a link in my blog that shows the area) .  The best time to visit the place perhaps on working days (we were there on Monday, around 1-2 pm). The gallery used to be a house of Ibrahim Ahmad, a well known Kurdish writer and politician. The house was donated by the family to be used as a gallery since 1995 and open to the public (free admission). 

Inside the gallery

The gallery has a lot of interesting collections (e.g. photos, pictures, sculptures) of Kurdish artists. They organized several exhibitions. An officer at the gallery gave us a catalogue of their last events. I hope they will get more publications.

Some of the Zamwa's collections

This painting reminds me of the  execution of Kurdish
during Saddam's regime

The name of Zamwa is actually taken from the ancient name of Sulaymani. The region used to be called as Zamwa during the Sumerians and Acadians (over 4300 years ago..wow!). The area of Zamwa covered: Ranya planes, Bazian region, Sulaymani, Pnejwen, Sharazoor, Sartak, Bamo and Zahwi region. 

Zamwa's terrace, an old tree and a missile

Zamwa's terrace is quite comfortable. There are chairs available so we can rest for a while and see interesting view such as a 140 years old tree covered by rugs and a missile installation (see the picture above). The tree was planted by Ibrahim Ahmad's father on the day when he (Ibrahim) was born. About the missile, well I guess the message is "The best use of a missile is to drop foods rather than to drop  bombs ". I enjoyed our time in the gallery. It is a simple place but the arrangement is quite good (regardless it is  lack of funding and need more space and facilities to display art works). It is worth to visit Zamwa.

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