Bestansur

Bestansur is an archaeological tell — a mound formed by accumulated layers of ancient human settlement — located in the western foothills of the Zagros Mountains, roughly 30 km southeast of Sulaimaniyya in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Its name derives from the nearby Kurdish village and translates loosely as Red Garden. The site has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, signalling its potential significance as evidence of early sedentary communities in the ancient Near East. On the ground today, it presents as an unexcavated landscape feature in rugged hill country, its full historical depth still largely hidden beneath the surface.