Sharfadin Temple

The Sharfadin temple in Sinjar, Iraq is an 4000-year old Yazidi temple built in honor of Sheikh Sherfedin. It is considered by Yazidis as one of the holiest places on earth.

The temple is made of a pale yellow stone, with two cones atop the building. At the tip of each cone are three gold balls and a crescent reaching skyward.

In August 2014, the temple was the site of a battle where 18 lightly armed Yazidi Peshmerga fighters under the command of Qasim Shesho successfully held off a larger and better equipped ISIL force with armored vehicles, mortars, and rockets that had attacked the shrine as part of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL.