Cheekha Dar, ( ku, Çîxî Derê / چیخی دەرێ) which means Black Tent, is the local Kurdish name for the mountain, located in Kurdistan Region of Iraq, currently thought to be the highest in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
. It is claimed to be high in the
CIA World Factbook.
It is north of the village of Gundah Zhur and is on the border with
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
.
It was climbed in November 2004 by English explorer
Ginge Fullen, who recorded a GPS reading of 3,628 meters at the coordinates in the adjacent table. The location is consistent with
SRTM and Russian topographic mapping, although these sources are more consistent with the
CIA height.
The first reported winter ascent was by Jonathan Beswick and Matthew DuPuy on March 18, 2011. The expedition GPS confirmed . There is a danger of
land mine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...
s in the area on approach between
Hamilton Road and the village of Gundah Zhur. Some fields are marked by red, triangular signs with skull and crossbones. It is possible to find Kurdish military escorts through this area in the town of Choman.
A nearby peak called Halgurd, at , is thought to be high, and had previously been thought to be Iraq's highest mountain.
See also
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Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan ( ku, باشووری کوردستان, Başûrê Kurdistanê) refers to the Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of "Kurdistan" in Western Asia, which also inc ...
*
List of elevation extremes by country
The following sortable table lists land surface elevation extremes by country or dependent territory.
Topographic elevation is the vertical distance above the reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gr ...
References
Mountains of Iraq
Mountains of Kurdistan
International mountains of Asia
Iran–Iraq border
Highest points of countries
Mountains of Kurdistan Province
Mountains of Iran
{{Iraq-geo-stub