978-1-4222-3442-6

I RAQ 104

The ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur are located near Basra. By the third millennium BCE , Ur was already flourish- ing as a center of trade and government.

Iraq’s oldest cities; it was founded in CE 636 by Caliph Umar I. It is located near an even older city—Ur, the ancient Sumerian city that flourished more than 4,000 years ago. Because of Basra’s proximity to southern Iraq’s many oil fields, the city is an important center for petroleum production. Many refineries have been built in and around Basra. Since the 1980s, control of the city has been heavily contested in Iraq’s many conflicts, due to its strategic location on the Shatt al Arab near the Iran border. In 2014, Basra was supposed to host a a major international soccer tournament, the Gulf Cup of Nations, but the event had to be moved to Saudi Arabia because organizers were concerned that the athletes would not be safe there. O THER I MPORTANT C ITIES Erbil (population 1.5 million) is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. It is located 50 miles (81 km) east of Mosul. It is an important com- mercial center in the region. Erbil was founded thousands of years ago by the Medes. The city has grown signficantly since 2003, thanks to generous foreign investment. An international airport