This past June, the first American tour group traveled to Kurdistan, an autonomous region in northern Iraq.
Escorted by cultural travel company Distant Horizons, a group of 17 Americans flew Austrian Airlines to the capital city of Erbil, and set off on an unprecedented two-week tour of the region.
Kurdistan, which covers large swaths of northern Iraq (along with parts of Turkey, Iran and Syria) has developed a campaign promoting the region as The Other Iraq — a peaceful, stable and modernized autonomous region that has now opened its doors to American visitors.
So take a look at this diverse region through the eyes of some recent visitors …
Click here to take a look at the Kurdistan slideshow.
Those pictures are inspiring, as is the fact that tourists are already in Iraq. I wonder what their liability waver looked like…