The district was historically an important trade route location due to its proximity to Iran.[4]
From the 1810s to Sayfo in 1915, the entire population of around the Great Zab was East Syriac Assyrian whose main occupation was agriculture that consisted of wheat, barley, cotton and tea.[4] The local Assyrian population were descendants of people who found refuge among Kurds from the Golden Horde in the early fifteenth century.[6][7]
Traveller Soane visisted the district in 1910, describing the area as 'one of the most inaccessible of the many sealed corners of this mountain country'.[6] After the genocide, Assyrian villages were subsequently populated by Kurds.[4]
In 1936, the name of the district was Turkified to Yüksekova, 'plateau'.[4]
Population history of the district from 2007 to 2023:[1]
Population
Year
Pop.
±%
2007
105,157
—
2010
108,546
+3.2%
2015
112,826
+3.9%
2020
119,562
+6.0%
2023
121,969
+2.0%
Climate
Yüksekova has a continental mediterranean climate (Köppen: Dsb). The winter months are cold and snowy, springs are cool and wet, autumns are mild and crisp, while the summer months are pleasantly warm and dry with cool nights. The average annual temperature is 6.9 °C and precipitation here averages 670 mm.[9]
^Sinclair, T. A. (1987). Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey, Volume I. London: The Pindar Press. p. 255. ISBN0-907132-52-9.
^ abSoane, E. B. (1910). To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in disguise : with historical notices of the Kurdish tribes and Chaldeans of Kurdistan. Maynard and Company. p. 51.
^Sinclair, T. A. (1987). Eastern Turkey: An Architectural and Archaeological Survey, Volume I. London: The Pindar Press. p. 251. ISBN0-907132-52-9.