Mount Korek

Mount Korek (Çîyayê Korek ,چیای کۆڕەک) is a mountain located in Erbil Governorate of the Kurdistan Region, 50 kilometers away from the Iranian border.

Observatory
In 1973, President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ordered the construction of the $160 million Erbil Observatory, which was intended to become the first major observatory in the Middle east, having two optical telescopes and one radio telescope.

In the early 1980s, about 400 people from various German and Swiss steel and optical manufacturers: Baresel, Epple, Krupp, Liebherr and Zeiss; constructed the three telescopes for the observatory. The crew working on the observatory came from ten countries. Harsh winters required extra safety precautions to be taken, and hindered construction. In late 1983, before construction was completed, they ran tests on one of the optical telescopes. The observatory’s construction ceased during the Iran-Iraq War, leaving the observatory unfinished and unusable. The observatory became a target of the Iranian military, as it had advanced radio sensing equipment and was near the Iraq-Iran border; even though it was never intended for military use. The partly-built observatories were damaged by Iranian missiles in 1985 and 1991, although it is thought that the observatory could be reparable.

Tourism
Mount Korek is a tourist attraction with Darin Group, an Iraqi-Kurdish company that built an approximately four kilometer long Doppelmayr Teleferic (cable car) from its Bekhal bottom station to Mount Korek. The mountain was developed as an international destination, including 132 villas and several rides. The project is called The Korek Mountain Resort & Spa. There are also restaurants and cafes. The resort is a summer retreat providing cool environs when the whole region reels under high temperatures. During winters, it turns into a ski resort.

The Resort is one of the top ten destinations to visit in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Weather
The mountain region has very volatile and extreme weather. Temperature ranges from 2 - 33 °C. The lowest temperature is -14 °C.

Rainfall is recorded from 20 – 75 mm It has between 60 – 100 days of snowfall in the mountains, between December and March.

Note: The data for charts above are taken from year 2000 to 2012