Yezidi Tombs Resurface from Mosul Dam

Yezidi tombs resurface from Mosul Dam reservoir, reviving memories of a buried heritage

MOSUL, Iraq — Long ago, the lands around Mosul nurtured families whose fathers and mothers worked its fields and whose children’s laughter echoed across its soil. But that life was swept away in the 1980s, when the waters of the Mosul Dam rose, swallowing not only the land but entire chapters of unwritten history.

For the Yezidis, the encroaching waters carried a deeper wound. The flood was not only the loss of land but the forced erasure of ancestral roots, compelling them to abandon places where their forebears had lived for centuries.

The ebbs and flows of time, however, are more than capable of uncovering what they once buried. In the scorching summer of 2025, the waters of the dam’s reservoir receded. The land finally exhaled, revealing stones long submerged. Among them were Yezidi tombs, some still etched with sacred symbols — a sun within a circle, spiritual motifs, and inscriptions that whispered of lives once lived and never truly forgotten.

For historians, these remains are an archaeological treasure. For the Yezidi people, they are far more. Each stone and tomb tell the story of a family whose memory was first entombed in stone, then beneath the waves. Their reappearance reflects the Yezidi experience itself. A people forced underground by centuries of attempts to erase their culture, yet enduring, carrying with them songs, festivals, and prayers as ancient as Nineveh Plains.

Who are the Yezidis?
The Yezidi faith has its roots in some of the world’s oldest religions, drawing upon Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and other pre-Abrahamic beliefs.

At the center of their tradition stands Tawûsê Malek, the Peacock Angel — a symbol of light, renewal, and wisdom, embodying a sacred relationship between humanity, nature, and the cosmos.

For the Yezidis, the land is not just soil but a consecrated being, imbued with the spirits of ancestors and the resonance of ancient prayers. Every tomb unearthed beneath the reservoir of the Mosul Dam is a living testament to a bond with the earth that no flood could wash away.

Shared Mesopotamian Legacy
Nineveh Plains and the city of Mosul hold an unparalleled cultural legacy for both the Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian and Yezidi peoples. The region is dotted with significant archaeological sites, including the ancient city of Nineveh — once the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and a thriving center of commerce and culture.

Renowned for its fertile soil, these lands have long been home to the region’s oldest peoples. Their coexistence across millennia stands as a testament to the richness of Mesopotamia’s spiritual and cultural heritage, written not only in books and ruins but in the very earth of northern Iraq.

– Syriac Press