A day of simply hitchhiking to explore the caves of Wan Year and the ancient city of Qian Nian (Part 1)

If going to Gome Fellaw is a rare lucky thing, then the journey of hitchhiking to explore the caves of Wan Year and Qian Nian is difficult and troublesome, but also full of surprises.

Shanidar cave is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Iraq. This cave once lived in Neanderthals (Neanderthals are close relatives of modern humans, they use fire and tools, create artwork, and even understand mourning rituals, but they were eventually extinct), dating back to 3.5~6.5 years ago. Although this is one of the most important attractions in the Kurd region, it is completely free, just like most attractions, it is just asking for a taxi. The cave is only 50 kilometers from Diana. 50 kilometers is not much in China or any developed country, but in Iraq, which is full of checkpoints and rugged roads, even driving by yourself takes an hour to reach.

And this day's journey's another focus is Amedi ancient city. Amedi ancient city has a history of over a thousand years, only 70 kilometers from the other major city Duhok in the Kurd region, but from Diana it is 235 kilometers. Because they are all mountainous roads, it takes more than three hours to drive. Therefore, this day we made a record of riding 18 strangers' cars.

At 8 am, after eating breakfast with Ali, we started hitchhiking. Because the Kurd region is really small, Diana is not a big city, so there are not many cars leaving Diana, hitchhiking is really a challenge. Fortunately, the locals are still quite friendly, we quickly caught a car that happened to pass by Shanidar cave, and the most frequent things in the journey were unexpected. Not long after arriving at a checkpoint, the checkpoint stopped us for questioning, checked our passports, and then asked us to drink tea and chat, most importantly asking the car owner whether he knew if we were acquainted. Pretending to protect our safety, when the car owner replied that he was just riding with us for a ride, the checkpoint usually let the car drive away, so we had to wait until we were on the side of the road to catch a car. Because of this, we were a little hurried on this itinerary, and it was a little complaining on our faces. What was even more embarrassing was that the officials at the checkpoint were always very enthusiastic about helping us find a car, but they couldn't find it in the end. There was no way to do this, so we had to catch a car on the road again.

After a while, we caught a pickup truck which is the most common vehicle in the Kurd region. The old man waved his hand and they stopped, after a few exchanges of pleasantries, he started to move things, and we rushed forward to inquire whether we could also take us for a ride. Although we didn’t communicate in language, according to the gestures, he understood our meaning very generously and indicated to us to get on the car. At the beginning, we just wanted to stand behind, but the old man and the other aunt patted each other's sides and organized their things, and insisted that we sit in the back, we didn’t want to argue, and thanked them for sitting in.

The old man and the others happily chatted in Kurdish and occasionally tried to communicate with us, and we could only communicate with them by making gestures and learning their accents, telling them that we were from China and wanted to go to Shanidar, when they heard that famous cave, they naturally knew it, because this valley was the only road to Shanidar.

The car wound through the canyons, with rugged cliffs on both sides, which was very interesting. Occasionally, through the mountains and mountains, you can see the distant lush green trees, which is the most generous gift of nature to the world, and also a part that must be explored in the journey. We love nature and are enthusiastic about exploring the beauty of the world.

Not long after, we arrived at the foot of Shanidar, because this site has been attached importance by the Kurd government, so a road has been specially built to Shanidar, there is a management personnel at the entrance, which is really like a tourist attraction, which reminded me that if it were in our country, we would definitely charge a lot of tickets. The manager invited us to drink tea, because there were very few people visiting here, they would be idle and cultivate vegetables and raise bees to pass the time, it is really enviable.

In addition to the concrete road to the entrance of Shanidar, the road to the cave mouth is also built layer by layer of steps, there are also several elegant bridges, which is very accessible. Along the way, there are also pavilions for rest, sitting down to eat snacks and drink water, and then overlooking the distant mountains and forests, it feels more relaxed and energetic to climb.

Shanidar cave is not very high, after all, it is just carved out from the mountains, and it didn't take long to get there. The entire cave is much larger than we imagined, with a height of 18 meters and a depth of 40 meters. It is still being explored and studied by archaeologists, so a part of it has been sealed off. There is plenty of water in the cave, and you can see many rocks still dripping water, forming a puddle, which can imagine how Neanderthals lived here ten thousand years ago. The best thing about the cave is that it is constantly exposed to sunlight, which allows them to maintain warmth in winter, and at this time, people's wisdom is really admirable. Of course, in addition to lighting and water, standing in the cave and overlooking the outside, the view is open, with green mountains stretching endlessly, which shows that people at that time had already learned to enjoy the gifts of nature.

Regarding that you have never seen Iraq, unfinished...

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