Erbil in the context of "Assyrian Church of the East"

Christianity, which originated in the Middle East during the 1st century AD, is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of the Old World. Today, Christians make up approximately 5% of the Middle Eastern population, down from 13-20% in the early 20th century. Cyprus is the only Christian majority country in the Middle East, with Christians forming between 76% and 78% of the country's total population, most of them adhering to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Lebanon has the second highest proportion of Christians in the Middle East, around 40%, predominantly Maronites. After Lebanon, Egypt has the next largest proportion of Christians (predominantly Copts), at around 10% of its total population. Copts of Egypt, numbering around 10 million, constitute the single largest Christian community in the entire Middle East.

The Eastern Aramaic speaking Assyrians of northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and parts of Iran have suffered due to ethnic cleansing, religious discrimination, and persecution for many centuries. During the 20th century, the percentage of Christians in the Middle East fell mainly as a result of the late Ottoman genocides: the Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, and Assyrian genocide committed against them by the Ottoman Turks and their allies, leading many to flee and congregate in areas in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, North America, and Western Europe. The great majority of Aramaic speaking Christians are followers of the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Ancient Church of the East, Assyrian Pentecostal Church and Assyrian Evangelical Church. In Iraq, the numbers of Christians has declined to between 300,000 and 500,000 (from 0.8 to 1.4 million before 2003 US invasion). Assyrian Christians were between 800,000 and 1.2 million before 2003. In 2014, the population of the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq was scattered to Dohuk, Erbil and Jordan due to ISIS forcing the Assyrian community out of their historical homeland, but since the defeat of the Islamic State in 2017, Christians have slowly began returning.

The Kurdistan Region (KRI) is a semi-autonomous federal region of the Republic of Iraq. It comprises four Kurdish-majority governorates of Arab-majority Iraq: Erbil Governorate, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Duhok Governorate, and Halabja Governorate. It is located in northern Iraq, which shares borders with Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, and Syria to the west.

It does not govern all of Iraqi Kurdistan and lays claim to the disputed territories of northern Iraq; these territories have a predominantly non-Arab population and were subject to the Ba'athist Arabization campaigns throughout the late 20th century. Though the KRI's autonomy was realized in 1992, one year after Iraq's defeat in the Gulf War, these northern territories remain contested between the Kurdistan Regional Government (in Erbil) and the Government of Iraq (in Baghdad) to the present day. The Kurdistan Region Parliament is based in Erbil, the capital of KRI.

The Battle of Gaugamela (/ˌɡɔːɡəˈmiːlə/ GAW-gə-MEE-lə; Ancient Greek: Γαυγάμηλα, romanized: Gaugámēla, lit. 'the Camel's House'), also called the Battle of Arbela (Ἄρβηλα, Árbēla), took place in 331 BC between the forces of the Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great and the Persian Army under King Darius III. It was the second and final battle between the two kings, and is considered to be the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, resulting in its complete conquest by Alexander.

The fighting took place in Gaugamela, a village on the banks of the river Bumodus, north of Arbela (modern-day Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan). Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Army of Macedon emerged victorious due to the employment of superior tactics and the clever usage of light infantry forces. It was a decisive victory for the League of Corinth, and it led to the fall of the Achaemenid Empire and of Darius III.

The Kurdistan Regional Parliament, also known as Kurdistan Parliament – Iraq (Kurdish: پەرلەمانی كوردستان; Arabic: برلمان اقليم كردستان), or simply Perleman, is the parliament of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. It comprises representatives from various parties, lists or slates elected every four years by the inhabitants of the Kurdistan Region, which the Kurdistan Regional Government currently governs. In 2009, an amendment was applied to the Kurdistan Election Law of the year 1992, changing the name of the body to the Kurdish Parliament from its previous name: the Kurdish National Assembly. In February 2024, the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq invalidated several articles of the election law and simultaneously amended it, decreasing the number of seats in the parliament from 110 to 100, among other structural changes.

The Parliament is a 100-member unicameral body in which 5 seats are reserved for non-Kurdish minority communities of the Kurdistan Region. The Parliament building is located in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.

36°37′04″N 44°29′41″E / 36.617662°N 44.494715°E / 36.617662; 44.494715

Bekhal Waterfall (Kurdish: تاڤگەی بێخاڵ) is located in the mountainous northern part of the country in the Kurdistan Region, in Erbil Governorate. It is located 10 km west of Rawandiz and 135 km from Erbil. This waterfall hosts many visitors and tourists across the country.

Adiabene (Greek: Αδιαβηνή, Classical Syriac: ܚܕܝܐܒ) was an ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, corresponding to the northwestern part of ancient Assyria. The size of the kingdom varied over time; initially encompassing an area between the Zab Rivers, it eventually gained control of Nineveh and starting at least with the rule of Monobazos I (late 1st-century BCE), Gordyene became an Adiabenian dependency. It reached its zenith under Izates II, who was granted the district of Nisibis by the Parthian king Artabanus II (r. 12–40) as a reward for helping him regain his throne. Adiabene's eastern borders stopped at the Zagros Mountains, adjacent to the region of Media. Arbela served as the capital of Adiabene.

The formation of the kingdom is obscure. The first instance of a recorded Adiabenian ruler is in 69 BCE, when an unnamed king of Adiabene participated in the battle of Tigranocerta as an ally of the Armenian king Tigranes the Great (r. 95–55 BCE). However, coinage implies the establishment of a kingdom in Adiabene around 164 BCE, following the disintegration of Greek Seleucid rule in the Near East. Adiabene was conquered by the Parthian king Mithridates I (r. 171–132 BCE) between 145–141 BCE, and served at least from the reign of Mithridates II (r. 124–91 BCE) as an integral part of the Parthian realm.

Bradost or Chia-y Bradost (Nawakhin), a mountain range over 5,000 feet above sea level and about 25 miles long, stretches northwest from the Rawanduz river opposite the town of Rawanduz in Erbil Governorate, Kurdistan Region,Iraq, to Rubari kuchuk, a tributary of the Great Zab.

The Shanidar Cave, a Neanderthal archaeological site, lies about 15 km N-W from its peak.

Inter-Zab Jewish Neo-Aramaic, or Lishanid Noshan, is a modern Jewish-Aramaic dialect, a variant of Northeastern Neo-Aramaic. It was originally spoken in Kurdistan Region of Iraq, in and around Erbil between the Great Zab and Little Zab rivers, it was also spoken in Turkey in the city of Cizre and its environs and in the Hakkari Mountains. Most speakers now live in Israel.