The Zagros mountains run for roughly 1,500 kilometres from the border of Turkey and Armenia in the north all the way down through Iraq and Iran to the Persian Gulf. For Kurds, this range is not simply a backdrop. It is the landscape that made Kurdish life what it is, determining where villages were built, where armies could and could not pass, and when the flocks had to move. The Zagros mountains of Kurdistan have defined the culture as much as any language or festival.
A Range of Many Faces
The Zagros is not one kind of mountain. In the north, around Hakkarî (Hakkari) in what is now south-eastern Turkey and across into Iraqi Kurdistan, the peaks are steep and snow-capped for much of the year, with narrow river gorges cutting between them. Further south and east, in Rojhilat (the Kurdish regions of Iran), the terrain opens out into broader valleys and high plateaux. The Hewraman (Hawraman) valley region, which sits across the Iran-Iraq border, is among the most dramatic, with villages stacked on terraced cliffs above rivers that carved their way through limestone over millions of years.
Several peaks exceed 3,000 metres. The highest point in Iraqi Kurdistan, Cheekha Dar, reaches around 3,611 metres on the border with Iran. Winter snowfall feeds the rivers that water the plains below, including the upper reaches of the Tigris. Spring snowmelt can be sudden and heavy, turning gentle streams into serious floods within days.
The rock itself tells a long story. The Zagros range was formed by the collision of the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, and that process has not entirely stopped. Minor earthquakes occur regularly across the region. The folded limestone landscapes that resulted are remarkable to look at from the air, with parallel ridges running like waves across the land.
Wildlife Across the Altitudes
The variety of altitude and climate across the Zagros has produced an equally varied mix of wildlife. Brown bears still live in the more remote forests of the northern range. Persian leopards, among the largest leopard subspecies in the world, have been recorded in the mountains of both Iraqi Kurdistan and the Iranian Kurdish regions, though they are rare and rarely seen. Wild boar are common in wooded valleys, and wolves range widely across the highlands.
The birdlife is particularly rich during the migration seasons. The Zagros sits along a major flyway between Central Asia and Africa, and spring and autumn bring large numbers of raptors and songbirds through the passes. Lammergeier vultures, with their extraordinary wingspan, are a striking sight above the high ridges. In the oak forests that cover many of the middle slopes, you can find Persian squirrels and a variety of woodpeckers. The Persian oak, known locally as bêlûl in some Kurdish dialects, is the dominant tree across large parts of the range and supports a whole ecosystem of its own.
The rivers hold fish too, including several species of barbel and trout that have been central to local diets for as long as people have lived here.
The Seasonal Migrations
For centuries, many Kurdish communities in the Zagros organised their year around two grazing grounds. In winter they descended to the lower valleys and plains, and as the snow melted in spring they moved their flocks upward to the high summer pastures, known as zozans. This practice, called transhumance, shaped Kurdish social life in profound ways. Family groups and larger tribal confederations developed complex customary rules about which pastures belonged to whom and at what time of year.
The migrations were not simply practical. They were social occasions, moments when communities that might be scattered across a wide area came together on the road or at a campsite. Poetry, music and storytelling all travelled with the flocks. Many of the oldest dengbêj (Kurdish oral poets and singers) traditions are connected to this nomadic pastoral life, carrying memories of particular valleys, passes and encampments.
Today, fully nomadic pastoralism has become rare, displaced by settled agriculture, state policies across all four countries of Kurdistan, and economic change. But the zozan culture has not disappeared entirely. Families in parts of Bashur (the Kurdistan Region of Iraq) and Rojhilat still move their animals to summer pastures, and the high meadows above towns like Ruwanduz (Rawanduz) fill with temporary settlements each summer. The rhythm has slowed and changed, but it persists.
Mountains That Stay With You
Anyone who has driven the mountain roads between Hewlêr (Erbil) and the Iranian border, or walked the trails above the Rawanduz gorge, tends to remember the landscape for a long time. There is a quality to the Zagros light in the late afternoon, when the shadows fall across the folded ridges and the air smells of oak and cold water, that people describe in very similar terms regardless of where they are from.
If the Zagros mountains of Kurdistan have a place in your memory or in your family’s stories, we would love to hear from you on Kurdistan.fm. Tell us which valley your grandparents came from, or which pass they crossed with their flocks. These are the details that keep a geography alive.