Jundyan resort: one of the wonders of nature or beauty beyond nature?

The naturally beautiful Jundyan summer resort is located on the versant of Hendren Mountain, 5 km east of Soran city and about 115 km away from the Kurdistan Region’s capital. It has a beautiful and magical natural spring – perhaps the magic is in the water as it dries up at times and reappears suddenly. The name Jundyan is derived from the term djinn, supernatural beings from the metaphysical world.  The people of the old Jundyan village and the area believe that the spring is haunted by djinns who control the water.

The “magical” spring is the source of much of the water that springs out of the rocks at the resort, which is surrounded by various types of trees. Altogether it gives the area a more magical character. Stories, some of them scary, have been passed down through the generations.

Jundyan resembles nothing else in the area, perhaps nothing else in the entire Kurdistan Region, possibly because the magical water, abundant most of the year, dries up suddenly in the autumn.

Like others in Rawandz in the Soran district, the resort has a cool climate in the summer, rarely exceeding 33° Celsius, which makes it a popular attraction for local and regional tourists. It offers restaurants and cabin shops that sell beverages and other needs for summer visitors.

Jundyan is on a main road connecting the Kurdistan Region with Iran, and overlooks beautiful scenery, making it an ideal place to take a break and enjoy lunch, a drink outdoors, or simply a seat to enjoy the quiet. The resort provides the area and surrounding villages a good income through the year.

There is not much research into the mysterious nature of the deep spring and, coupled with the superstitions about djinn, this has led to questions about the source of the water. The spring flows differently depending on the day, week, or month.

This phenomenon is not as magical as it may appear to be; it is not controlled by djinn nor is there any supernatural force behind it. Bzhar Abdulmanaf Kheder, a researcher from Soran University, told Kurdistan 24 that it is common with other springs in Soran, especially in areas with the same rock formation.

No matter how mountainous the area around Junyan may seem, much of it is actually made from limestone, he explained. The area is full of underground caves and cavities that are interconnected and allow the water to pass between them.

Kheder said the cavities are different sizes, and thus water that streams from a larger space to a smaller one, or vice versa, causes irregularities in the water level.

Junyan’s spring may be more complex than others, he suggested, but the unusual flow is due to natural basins.

The Ministry of Municipality and Tourism has plans to modernize the resort under the supervision of Soran’s tourism directorate, in an attempt to increase the number of tourists who can visit the area. The ministry also said it would remove concrete buildings in front of the streams to allow the natural attractions to re-emerge. There are also plans to construct a lake and waterfall.

According to the Soran Directorate of Tourism, more than a million people already visit the district’s resorts annually, and at least half of them visit Jundyan. It is expected that the number of tourists will increase this summer due to the high temperatures and the ending of the travel ban between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.