Erbil

Erbil, also known as Hewler (Kurdish: Hewlêr‎, Central Kurdish: ھەولێر; Arabic: أربيل‎ Arbīl), is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. It is located northwest of Baghdad, and its governorate has a permanent population of approximately 1.61 million as of 2011.

Human settlement at Erbil can be dated back to possibly 5000 BC, and it is one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas in the world. At the heart of the city is the ancient Citadel of Arbil. The earliest historical reference to the region dates to the Ur III dynasty of Sumer, when king Shulgi mentioned the city of Urbilum – the ancient Sumero-Akkadian-Assyro-Babylonian name of modern-day Arbil. The city became an integral part of Assyria from the 25th century BC to the end of the 7th century BC. Erbil remained a part of the Geo-Political province of Assyria from the beginning of the 6th century BC, and was under the rule of many regional powers in turn, including the Median Empire, the Achaemenid Empire (Achaemenid Assyria), Macedonian Empire, Seleucid Empire, Parthian Empire, Roman Empire and Sassanid Empire. During the Parthian era to early Sassanid era (C.150 BC - C.250 AD) Erbil became the capital of the Neo-Assyrian state of Adiabene. Following the Arab Muslim conquest of Persia, the Arabs dissolved Assyria (then known as Assuristan/Athura) as a geo-political entity in the mid-7th century AD, and during medieval times the city came to be ruled by the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks.