Erbil Observatory, Astronomical observatory at Mount Korek, Rawanduz, Iraq.

Erbil Observatory stands on Mount Korek at about 2,127 m, 1,500 m above the surrounding terrain. Its squat gray concrete cylinder carries a dome split between a brownish-copper upper section and a lighter metal cap, with a vertical slit down one side and a thin metal platform ring between base and dome. A lattice tower with round dish antennas rises beside it. Three telescopes were planned: a 5.3 m optical, a 1.25 m, and a millimetre-wave radio telescope.

In 1973 President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ordered the construction of an observatory with three telescopes on Mount Korek, chosen by astronomers for its 252 clear nights a year and its height of about 2,127 m. More than $170 million was allocated, and in the early 1980s some 400 people from about ten countries worked for Baresel, Epple, Krupp, Liebherr and Zeiss; tests on the small telescope were run in late 1983. Iranian rockets destroyed the partly built structures during the Iran–Iraq War.

The site is known locally as ڕوانگەی ئاسمانیی ھەولێر in Sorani Kurdish and مرصد أربيل in Arabic. Iraqi astronomer Abdul Azim Al-Sabti has campaigned with specialists to restore the damaged national observatory on Mount Korek. German artist Hito Steyerl featured the observatory in one of her short films.

The site stands on Mount Korek at about 2,127 m, some 1,500 m above the surrounding terrain, and the road up is a mountain track. Crews working here in the early 1980s had to secure the building site each winter because of heavy snowfall. The partly built domes and lattice towers remain, with no visitor facilities.

German artist Hito Steyerl used the unfinished Erbil Observatory in one of her short films, turning the abandoned site into a subject of contemporary art. The partly built domes and telescope housings on Mount Korek appear in her footage decades after Iranian rockets halted construction.