ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A 100-million-dollar museum, set to be the largest of its kind across the Kurdistan Region, will be built in Duhok, a local official told The New Region on Monday.

The museum will cover 82 dunams of land, Bekas Brifkani, head of Duhok’s antiquities and heritage department said, adding the project will cost “around 100 million dollars.”

“The museum will be similar to the Louvre Museum in Paris,” Brifkani said.

The Louvre, one of the most famous museums in the world, is a national art museum in the French capital. It houses some of the world’s most iconic antiquities and paintings, including Leonardo da Vinci’s fifteenth-century masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.

“We will try to connect Aluka Park and the museum to Mount Zawa by creating a pedestrian road between them,” Brifkani said.

Sitting at the foot of Mount Zawa, Aluka is a major park that is currently under construction. With its completion, Duhok’s greenery rate is expected to rise from 14 to 20 percent.

The local official said the project would “attract as many tourists as possible to Duhok province.”

Duhok has a rich ancient heritage and historical ruins that date back to 705-681 BC.

Duhok province boasts a huge number of archeological sites, such as the Grand Mosque, Old Bazar in the city center, Saint Ith Ilaha church, and Charstin, Shindokha, and Hallamat caves.

There are at least 450 archeological sites in the Duhok, and over 4,000 artifacts are currently preserved in the Duhok museum, according to data by Brifkani’s department.