Erbil
This article is about the Iraqi Kurdish city. For the governorate, see Erbil (governorate). For the name, see Erbil (name).
Erbil (officially Kurdish ھەولێر Hewlêr or Arabic أربيل Arbil, DMG Arbīl) is the capital and also the seat of government of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan in Iraq. In addition, Erbil is the capital of the Erbil Governorate of the same name and the economic and commercial center of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Erbil Citadel is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world; in June 2014, it was granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO.
Favoured by the stable security situation and as the location of the regional parliament, a number of foreign missions have been opened in Erbil. Countries that have diplomatic representation in Erbil include the US, Russia, Iran, the UK, France, South Korea, Germany and China. In November 2007, the UN opened an office in Erbil. The mayor is Nihad Latif Kodscha, who lived in exile in Germany for 23 years.
The Mudhafaria Minaret
View of the city centre
Etymology
Due to its immense age, the city was mentioned early in human history. As early as the third millennium BC, the Sumerians mentioned the city as Urbilum or Urbelum. This term is probably derived from the Hurrian word Arbilum. In the Ur-III period the place was also called Urbilum, until the Old Babylonian period Urbel, the Assyrians called it Arbail (today Aramaic ܐܪܒܝܠ Arbela). Other scholars trace the name to the Akkadian arba'ū ilū (Four Gods).
In ancient Persia the city was called Arbairā. In ancient Greece Arbelles.
The present Kurdish name Hewlêr is probably a further modification of the word Arbel by various phonetic metatheses.
Population
The population of Erbil has grown strongly in recent years. In 2007, according to OCHA, the population of Erbil city was 808,600, the population of Erbil district was 1,115,890, and the population of Erbil governorate was 1,542,421. In 2013, the Joint Analysis Unit United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq projected a population of 1,530,722 for Erbil governorate. For 2014, the REACH initiative of UNOSAT, ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development) and IMPACT assumes a population of 1.4 million for Erbil, still excluding the refugees who reached the city after ISIS captured Mosul.
Recent estimates put the population of the governorate at up to 2 million, but exact and reliable figures do not exist. The Kurds make up the majority; the minorities include Chaldo-Assyrians, Arabs and Turkmen. In addition, due to the emerging housing and house construction, numerous guest workers from Turkish companies live in the city. The city's inhabitants are predominantly Muslim. Over 40,000 Christian Chaldo-Assyrians live mainly in the suburb of Ankawa.
