Diyala Governorate in the context of Tell Agrab

The Hamrin Mountains (Arabic: جبل حمرين, romanized: Jabāl Hamrīn, Kurdish: چیای حەمرین, romanized: Çiyayê Hemrîn or Çiyayên Hemrîn) are a small mountain ridge in northeast Iraq. The westernmost ripple of the Zagros Mountains, the Hamrin mountains extend from the Diyala Governorate bordering Iran, northwest to the Tigris river, crossing northern Saladin Governorate and southern Kirkuk Governorate.

Historically the Hamrin mountains were called Barima, Bārimā and Birimma (Arabic: جبل بارِمّا, romanized: Jabāl Bārimā). Ibn Khaldun, a 14th century historian called the Hamrin mountains range, the "Kurdish mountains". That is because these mountains are situated in the south of Kirkuk and Kurds live there, so, Ibn Khaldun said, "the range Hamrin mountains is a place whose people are Kurdish."

Eshnunna (Ešnunna, also Ašnunna, Išnun, Ašnun, Ašnunnak, and Ešnunak.) (modern Tell Asmar in Diyala Governorate, Iraq) was an ancient Sumerian (and later Akkadian) city and city-state in central Mesopotamia 12.6 miles northwest of Tell Agrab and 15 miles northwest of Tell Ishchali. Although situated in the Diyala Valley northwest of Sumer proper, the city nonetheless belonged securely within the Sumerian cultural milieu. It is sometimes, in very early archaeological papers, called Ashnunnak or Tupliaš.

The tutelary deity of the city was Tishpak (Tišpak) though other gods, including Sin, Adad, and Inanna of Kiti (Kitītum) were also worshiped there. The personal goddesses of the rulers were Belet-Šuḫnir and Belet-Terraban.

Baqubah (Arabic: بَعْقُوبَة; BGN: Ba‘qūbah; also spelled Baquba and Baqouba) is the capital of the Diyala Governorate of Iraq. The city is located some 50 km (31 mi) to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated population of some 280,000 people.

Baqubah served as a way station between Baghdad and Khorasan on the medieval Khorasan Road. During the Abbasid Caliphate, it was known for its date and fruit orchards, irrigated by the Nahrawan Canal. It is now known as the centre of Iraq's commercial orange groves. During the Iraq war, Baqubah served the capital of Al Qaeda in Iraq as well as the Islamic State of Iraq, the predecessors of the Islamic State.

Khanaqin (Arabic: خانقين; Kurdish: خانەقین, romanized: Xaneqîn) is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populated by Kurds who speak the Southern Kurdish dialect. Khanaqin is situated on the main road which Shia pilgrims use when visiting holy Islamic cities. The city is rich in oil, and the first Iraqi oil refinery and oil pipeline was built nearby in 1927. The main tribes of Khanaqin include Kalhor, Feyli, Zand, Malekshahi Suramiri, Arkavazi and Zangana.

The city experienced Arabization during the Saddam era, but this has been substantially reversed after the fall of the regime in 2003 and remains disputed.

Khafajah or Khafaje (Arabic: خفاجة), ancient Tutub, is an archaeological site in Diyala Governorate, Iraq 7 miles (11 km) east of Baghdad. Khafajah lies on the Diyala River, a tributary of the Tigris. Occupied from the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods through the end of the Old Babylonian Empire, it was under the control of the Akkadian Empire and then the Third Dynasty of Ur in the 3rd millennium BC. It then became part of the empire of the city-state of Eshnunna lying 12 miles (19 km) southwest of that city, about 5 miles (8.0 km) from the ancient city of Shaduppum, and near Tell Ishchali, both of which Eshnunna also controlled. It then fell to First Babylonian Empire before falling into disuse. The city of Tutub is mentioned in a fragmentary Sumerian temple hymn "... To the shrine Nippur, to the Duranki <we go>, To ..., to the brickwork of Tutub <we go>, To the lofty Abzu ...".

The site of Tulul Khattab (also Telul Khattab) lies 13 kilometers away and at over 50 hectares is one of the largest in the area. The site consists of 14 sub-mounds and it was excavated in 1979 (as it was being exploited by brickmaking industries) recovering 379 Old Babylonian period cuneiform tablets and fragments (225 on Mound 1 and 154 on Mound 2), which featured nine year names of Eshnunna rulers including "Year 2 of Ṣillī-Sîn as king". Only a handful of the tablets have been published.

Khan Bani Saad (Arabic: مدينة خان بني سعد, romanized: Madīna Khān Banī Sa`ad) is a majority Shia Arab city in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.