The Seven Towers of Satan: Iraq's Lovecraftian Horror

#mysteriousmiddleeast #mesopotamia #hauntedstories #ancienthistory #orientalism

Is Iraq and the rest of the Mesopotamian region haunted? If so, then by what? And how is it connected to one of the country's oldest Kurdish communities? In the early 1900s, the french Sufi philosopher Abdul Wahid Yahya, believed that he discovered a metaphysical secret that governed the entire planet and the lives of everyone on it. Known as the Towers of Satan, could this theory explain why this part of the Middle East is paranormal?

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The Lost Mesopotamian Giants of Syria

References and Further Reading

"Phantoms & Monsters: Mysterious Encounters" Lon Strickler
"Orient and Occidens" Abdul Wahid Yahya (Rene Guenon)
"Adventures in Arabia: Among the Bedouins, Druses, Whirling Dervisches & Yezidee Devil Worshipers" William Seabrook
"Orientalism" Edward Said

Chapters:
0:00 Intro: Abdul Wahid Yahya's Seven Towers of Satan
2:32 Three Djinn Stories in Iraq
6:40 The Yazidi Community
11:25 William Seabrook: Lovecraft's The Horror of Red Hook
15:54 The Yazidi Connection to Djinn

Music by Scott Buckley

Thumbnail: Maxence Fleuret concept art

Voiceover by Karim Ismael
Edited by Abdullah Yahya
Executive Producers Abdullah Yahya

[ahmedaljanaby]

The creature mentioned at the beginning is called طنطل "Tantal" which loosely translates to "the tall one" in Iraq
It's believed to be a kind of Jinn creatures
It's a creature in its original form may reach a hundred meters in height with thin limbs (much like slender man) but it can take other forms like animal form (mostly black goat or cat) and an in between form of a human with goat legs

Most Iraqis know the unending stories of Tantal from their grandparents
Creepy stories that is

[outlawandoutdoorstv]

Served in the US Army as a Infantryman during surge in Iraq 06-07 and got out in December of 08. Iraq is a beautiful country ! It can be a desert wasteland or a tropical paradise along the Euphrates or at least back then . Now the Euphrates is drying up. I served with a dude that was at the Al Haditha dam and he said it was crazy as hell. He said that he seen Iraqis commit suicide because they were scared to death to go down into the holding cells . They would say the jinn would torment them and drive them mad day and night. He said at night you would hear crazy screams and a weird language that would seem to come from the bottom of the damn. All the death that has happened in that country along with Iraq being the oldest settlement on Earth. The truth is stranger that fiction for sure !!

[jerrypickles-qryv]

Served four years as a soldier across both Iraq and Afganistan. Stood on the foundations of Enoch to the old battlefields. Had some of the strangest nightmares during those tours. There's ancient evil there beyond anyone's understanding.

[Kikilang]

I knew this guy who was in Iraq. He was in the military, and one day he was in a helicopter going some where. The were in the middle of no where and they seen this guy down on the ground. This location was miles from anywhere, and to see some alone was odd. To be traveling on foot, a person would die before they could get to water. The flew down closer to get a look. The man was in traditional clothing, which was rare. He seemed to be moving quickly. What was odd, was he kept moving and didn't stop to look at the helicopter a few hundred feet away. Secondly, the man's legs were bent backwards, and seemed to jecking around quickly like something was wrong. Some said, "The heat near the ground distorts the light. That's what it must have been." The guy said, "No. We were only a few hundred feet away. We were blow dust past him and we could see the ground at his feet. That was all normal." The third odd thing was, this man on the ground and he seemed to be walking (strangely) but he wasn't going anywhere. He was fixed at that point. They were discusing what to do, and the guy never traveled an inch. One guy said land, I want to check this out. The guy flying said, "F that. We are leaving, and pretending we didn't see anything.."

[zachariah]

I was in Iraq from 2004 to 2006. Baghdad, Fallujah and a few places in between. I’ve never really shared the things I encountered over there outside of the war itself, but I swear on my life that there is a darkness there w/ some seriously terrifying stuff among the shadows.

[jeff]

I was in Iraq during the invasion, USMC infantry, all I saw was war. Violence, tragedy that ranged from sadness and despair to being beyond tired becoming mindless. People moving about without cause or purpose but only for self preservation. It was a literal "same shit different place" environment for weeks. It was joked/laughed at the idea we were the product of a horseman burning and destroying everything in our wake unknowingly doing so. I saw people of various faiths praying much more often and harder than usual. I saw a lot of evil, I saw a lot of good but it was only of human natures on all sides. We smashed through Nasiriyah, at that point we were part of task force tarawa, I encourage the ignorant to look this up. The nas was biblical which I knew nothing of before the war but that changed during. The nas is a place believed to exist upon the gardens of eden itself. Where the tigris and euphrates meet. To me, it was a major stronghold of where the fedayeen soldiers were posted and had every single intention of stopping us there. It was bloody and terrible for living person there. It started making me aware of the fact I, even in the unfortunate circumstances of why I was there, that I was walking upon the cradle of life itself. Later on after things settled and the war was officially over and we were moving towards the occupation side of things, we got sent to protect ancient historical sites and preservation of these types of things. I was sent to Babylon, and I felt both excited, terrified, burdens but free. Wind would blow in random spots but nowhere else around this place. At night our naked eyes would see very odd things I cant describe but nothing was there through night vision or in other cases be opposite of that. I had disposable cameras and took a lot of footage of there, none of the unexplained sights appeared in them. All I have is a terrible reminder of the awful things the human race does to one another buried beneath my bed. I woke up very early this morning for an unexplained reason, I made coffee and was intending on watching some wood working videos and this hit my feed first. These things happen for a reason. No matter your faith ladies and gents, get right with yourselves, we don't know for sure what is after.

[esmanmusic]

I don’t know how the algorithm let me land on this channel, but it’s deeply fascinating.

[teyanuputorti]

I remember I had a classmate from Iraq and and Im mix of Native American, African American and Italian. We ended up sharing stories we were told growing up and what was striking was the similarities even though we were from different parts of the world. Just thought I share that.

[aaronc]

i’m amazed by your choice of music throughout this video, well done!

[Sameoldage]

I’ve been all over Iraq and I would say since I went to the birth of civilization.. the palace of Abraham and the city of ur, I would agree that there is something special about it.. when you look at the vast desert at night and or sunrise/sunset you feel like your in a different world and it’s just an amazing place to see and experience.

[johndoe-xzpq]

I am from a post soviet republic in central Asia n its interesting that soviet veterans of afghan war tell stories about supernatural stuff that happened to them in Afghanistan. They saw giants who attacked them, they saw very tall n slender, shadowlike people with high turbans n very long swords attacking them, killing them n these creatures appeared out of nowhere n dissolved in the air as well, also there were sufis ( saints) who put some sand in their palms n blew that sand towards soviet soldiers saying prayers n after that those soldiers flesh started rotting. Also many veterans after returning home claimed that some ghosts or spirits from Afghanistan haunted them back home n went crazy or committed suicides. Why its interesting is cause american veterans of afghan n iraqi wars tell the same stories. People from different cultures, from different time periods tell the same creepy stories. I have a friend from Britain. His brother was in Afghanistan twice in 2005-2008 n he told me a lot of supernatural stories. He converted to islam ultimately, he says that his whole worldview collapsed after his deployments. He told that one day his team or squad i dont know exactly were patrolling the mountains n he started hearing some enchanting rhymes in his head, they were v beautiful n pacifying but when he asked his fellows if they heard anything they said no. It was in his head n he told this to an afghani soldier who cooperated with them n he memorised some words from that rhyme n he was really shocked when afghani said that those were verses from Quran. That episode in particular affected him

[Lol_Pig]

There is so much about the Middle East that I find fascinating, and I thank you for sharing stories like this one.

[miffedpup.]

My niece served in Afghanistan and she said she seen things over there that freaked her out more than the enemy. She said it has an eerie scary feeling sometimes and this is coming from a woman who grew up on an Indian reservation where we all seen and heard things unworldly 😵‍💫

[loxley]

This has to be one of my favourite channels on YouTube! I teach in Saudi Arabia and for how ‘conservative’ they appear to be it is incredible when you get to know some of the students well, especially more wealthy students whose families have large holdings or influence in more rural areas, how willing they are to share stories like this, usually from ‘grandmothers’ etc. You can tell that often they are just legends or tales from different areas but I have heard stories of Djinns, Ghouls and other weirder cryptid like creatures as well as one elderly student of mine who seems like such a serious guy who swears to actually seeing a Djinn face to face when he was young hiking in Afghanistan (which he ran away from in terror!)

[CoachForsyth]

I was an EOD Sergeant on several of these ops...I was not a shooter, I was the tech guy to disarm booby traps. We ran into two giants, and yes I pissed my pant's when he attacked us. Look I am not a coward, but that thing was massive, it stunk like rotting flesh, and it attacked like it was life or death. We killed it, it was massive, it had six fingers, I never saw its feet, and it had weird stringy, very odd hair, depending on the sun light...NO I do not want to talk about this as it is humiliatingly for me as a man, and yes it scared me so much that I pissed my pants...

[sunnyyadav]

Poor Yazidis....ISIS extremists have done some unspeakable acts of crime against these people. May these people find peace.🙏

[kgraham]

I really appreciate this channel and all the hard work that goes into each of the videos. I enjoy hearing of your rich histories and legends. Thank you all for everything

[catwomanbyalchemistress]

My husband returned from a 12 month deployment in Iraq, 2005. My entire family, household of 8, in 3 separate homes. Suffered the most bizarre, unbelievable paranormal experience beyond my imagination.

[kyjxcrk]

I'm Kurdish, and we live 4, 000 ft above sea level, weird things happen up there. I live in the U.S. now, but how can I forget.

[blackphilip]

A friend of mine suggested this video to me and I subscribed immediately. As a folklore, mythology and horror enthusiast I think this channel is fantastic, not only the stories are really intriguing and interesting, but the production is top notch. Keep up the good work!