Cheekha Dar (, , ), 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, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...
. It is claimed to be high in the
CIA World Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print ve ...
.
It is north of the village of Gundah Zhur and is on the border with
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...
.
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
The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) is an international research effort that obtained digital elevation models on a near-global scale from 56th parallel south, 56°S to 60th parallel north, 60°N, to generate the most complete high-resol ...
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, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...
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 is around high, and was previously thought to be Iraq's highest mountain.
See also
*
Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...
*
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 ...
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