Iraq · 18th century
Zarb Castle ranks #8,961 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #15 of the 15 mapped in Iraq. Founded c. 1770, it is older than 14% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 685 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. See how Iraq compares in the castle statistics.
Zarb Castle: this heritage castle is located in the Ghammas district, 45 kilometres south-west of the city of Diwaniyah, and dates from the period of the Ottoman presence in Iraq; it is thought to have been built around the year 1770. It was given this name after the emir of the Khaza'il tribes, Zarb bin Mughamis bin Shalal al-Khaz'ali, to whom the Ottoman state handed over this strategic castle in order to ensure the tribes remained quiet and did not stir up unrest against the Ottomans, because of the influence of the Khaza'il emirate in those areas. Zarb Castle played an important role during the 1920 revolution in Iraq against the British occupation, as large quantities of the revolutionaries' weapons, including swords, daggers and shields, were recently found in it.
Machine-translated from “قلعة ذرب” on the Arabic Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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