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Kirkuk City

Kirkuk City
Historical documents and archaeological sites show that Kirkuk is an ancient Kurdish city located in the foothills of West central Zagros Mountains of Kurdistan within the pervious Kurdish province of Sharezur.   The city has been within the administrative jurisdiction of Iraq since the creation of the state of Iraq. Kirkuk (also spelled Karkuk or Kerkuk), Kurdish : که‌رکووک, Syriac: ܐܪܦܗܐ, Arabic: كركوك‎, Turkish: Kerkük, is a city in Iraq and capital of Kirkuk Governorate. It is located at 35.47°N, 44.41°E, in the Iraqi governorate of Kirkuk, 250 kilometres (156 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. The Kirkuk region lies among the Pir Magrun (Gudrun) to the north-east, the Zab River and the Tigris River to the west, the Hamrin Mountains to the south, and the Sirwan (Diyala) River to the south-east. It stands on the site of the ancient Assyrian capital of Arrapha , which sits near the Khasa River on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement (Kirkuk Citadel.) Arrapha reached great importance under the Assyrians in the 10th and 11th centuries BC. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia, and Media, who controlled the city at various times . Both Kurds and Turkmen claim it as their historical capital. However based on the existing historical documents and other evidences, Kurds are the oldest natives of the city and Turkmens migrated to Iraq during the Umayyads and Abbasid eras as military recruits. It was named the "capital of Iraqi culture" by the ministry of culture in 2010.
Etymology
The ancient name of Kirkuk was Arraphka which derives from the old Hurrian and is said to mean "city". During the Parthian era, a Korkura is mentioned by Ptolemy, which is believed to refer either to Kirkuk or to the site of Baba Gurgur three miles from the city. Under Greek reign it was known as Karkha D-Bet Slokh, which means 'Citadel of the House of Seleucid' in Aramaic, the lingua...