Sharish Thermal Springs

Sharish Thermal Springs are natural mineral springs in the Dohuk Governorate of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, a mountainous landscape in the Zagros foothills where the Kurdish Autonomous Region has developed a growing tourism infrastructure drawing on the extraordinary natural beauty of the Dohuk area's valleys, lakes, and highland scenery. The Kurdistan Region's relative stability and distinctive cultural identity — the Kurds being one of the world's largest ethnic groups without a state, maintaining their own language, traditions, music, and cuisine across southeastern Turkey, northern Syria, Iraq, and Iran — make Dohuk a genuinely distinctive destination where the thermal spring culture complements an emerging ecotourism sector built around the region's dramatic Zagros mountain landscapes. The sodium spring waters here offer therapeutic bathing in a governorate where natural beauty, ancient Assyrian heritage sites, traditional Kurdish hospitality, and the resilience of a people who have survived extraordinary historical hardships combine to create one of the Middle East's most unexpectedly compelling and hospitable emerging tourism destinations.