Dawodiya is an Assyrian village close to the Sapna valley in the Iraqi province of Dohuk. Gara Mount bounds the Sapna valley to south and Matean Mount to the north. The valley stretches 25 kilometres in length and varies from 5 to 10 kilometres wide. Some references indicate that the village of Dawodiyaof existed in pre-Christian times while others suggest that it was built in the Middle Ages. While residents of Dawodiya, are not certain of the village's exact age, they assume it was several centuries ago when some Assyrian Christian families escaped the persecution of Ottoman authorities during their original occupation of Botan in southern Turkey. The British scholar Austen Henry Layard visited the village in the 1840s, spending one...
