Rebuilding of central Yazidi shrine at Lalesh

Описание: (26 Jul 2018) LEADIN:
Renovation work on the holiest site in the Yazidi faith is underway.
It was delayed for five years after Islamic State militants took control of large swathes of Iraq.
STORYLINE:
The Lalesh temple is the Yazidi minority's most holy site.
Perched in the hills of the district of Sheikhan in northern Iraq, it's a place they all hope to visit.
And now work is underway to renovate the shrine.
Workers are recreating areas of the temple with materials that were used when it was originally built.
"There used to be a renovation committee before and they replaced the stones with concrete blocks," says Marwan Hussein Ali, a construction worker.
"Now, we are removing the blocks and the cement and building it as it was a hundred years ago."
The High Yazidi Board has just started the process which was meant to begin five years ago.
But the plans had to be postponed after the Islamic State group swept through Yazidi areas of Nineveh governorate in 2014.
Thousands were killed or enslaved and hundreds of thousands were displaced in the violence.
But with IS all but eradicated from Iraq, Yazidis are once again travelling to Lalesh.
"We are coming here because this is a holy place for the Yazidis, and it's a place that you have to visit once in your lifetime," says Lara Kamal Ali, a Yazidi visitor.
As well as improvements to the stonework, the renovation will include a new dual carriageway at the entrance as well as a large car park to host more visitors.
More than 200,000 people come to the temple every year with the busiest times during the Yazidi new year in April and during the summer feast.
Kamal Ali says the Lalesh temple is "very big and beautiful" and says the renovation work is "making progress".
The work is being funded by donations from Yazidis from around the world.
The labourers are volunteers from the nearby Yazidi villages who consider the work in the temple as a spiritual act.
Lalesh is a shrine to the faith's holiest historical figure, Sheikh Adi bin Musafir.
Yazidism is a religion that combines elements of ancient Middle Eastern faiths.
Its followers, perhaps half a million in Iraq and Syria, worship a high angel called Melek Taus, also known as the Peacock King.

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