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جمهورية العراق
Jumhūriyat Al-ʿIrāq (Arabic)
كۆماری عێراق
Komarê Iraq (Kurdish)
Republic of Iraq
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Motto: الله أكبر (Arabic)
"Allahu Akbar" (transliteration)
"God is [the] Greatest" |
Anthem: Mawtini (new)
Ardh Alforatain (previous)1
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Capital
(and largest city) |
Baghdad2
 33°20′N, 44°26′E |
| Official languages |
Arabic, Kurdish |
| Demonym |
Iraqi |
| Government |
Developing parliamentary republic |
| - |
President |
Jalal Talabani |
| - |
Prime Minister |
Nouri al-Maliki |
| Independence |
| - |
from the Ottoman Empire |
October 1, 1919 |
| - |
from the United Kingdom |
October 3, 1932 |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
438,317 km² (58th)
169,234 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
1.1 |
| Population |
| - |
2007 estimate |
29,267,0004 (39th) |
| - |
Density |
66/km² (125th)
171/sq mi |
| GDP (PPP) |
2006 estimate |
| - |
Total |
$89.8 billion (61st) |
| - |
Per capita |
$2,900 (130th) |
| Currency |
Iraqi dinar (IQD) |
| Time zone |
GMT+3 (UTC+3) |
| - |
Summer (DST) |
not observed (UTC+3) |
| Internet TLD |
.iq |
| Calling code |
+964 |
| 1 |
The Kurds use Ey Reqîb as the anthem. |
| 2 |
The capital of Iraqi Kurdistan is Arbil. |
| 3 |
Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages of the Iraqi government. According to Article 4, Section 4 of the Iraqi Constitution, Assyrian (Syriac) (a dialect of Aramaic) and Iraqi Turkmen (a dialect of Southern Azerbaijani) languages are official in areas where the respective populations they constitute density of population. |
| 4 |
[CIA World Factbook] |
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūrīyat Al-Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.[1] It shares borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf. There are two major flowing rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
The capital city, Baghdad, is in the center-east. Iraq's rich history dates back to ancient Mesopotamia. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is identified as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing. During its long history, Iraq has been the center of the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Abbasid empires, and part of the Achaemenid, Macedonian, Parthian, Sassanid, Umayyad, Mongol, Ottoman, and British empires.[2]
Since an invasion in 2003, a multinational coalition of forces, mainly American and British, has occupied Iraq. The invasion has had wide-reaching consequences: increased civil violence, establishment of a parliamentary democracy, the removal and execution of former authoritarian President Saddam Hussein, official recognition and widespread political participation of Iraq's Kurdish minority and Shi'ite Arab majority, significant economic growth, building of new infrastructure, and use of the country's huge reserves of oil. According to the 2007 Failed States Index, produced by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, Iraq has recently emerged as the world's second most unstable country,[3] after Sudan,[4] and the United States has recently referred to it in court proceedings as "an active theater of combat."[5] Iraq is developing a parliamentary democracy composed of 18 governorates (known as muhafadhat).
Name
The origin of the name Iraq (Arabic: العراق 'al-‘Irāq, Turkish: Irak, Assyrian: ܥܪܐܩ, Kurdish: عيَراق) is disputed. There are several suggested origins for the name. One dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk (or Erech)[6] ; another maintains according to Professor Wilhelm Eilers, The name al-‘Irāq, for all its Arabic appearance, is derived from Middle Persian erāq "lowlands".[7]
Under the Persian Sassanid dynasty, there was a region called "Erak Arabi," referring to the part of the south western region of the Persian Empire that is now part of southern Iraq. The name Al-Iraq was used by the Arabs themselves, from the 6th century, for the land Iraq covers.
The Arabic pronunciation is [ʕiˈrɑːq]. In English, the name is pronounced as either [ɪ.ˈɹɑ(ː)k] ( the only pronunciation listed in the Oxford English Dictionary) or [ɪ.ˈɹæk]] (listed first by MQD).
Geography
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Iraq is located at 33°00′N, 44°00′E. Spanning 437,072 km² (168,743 sq mi), it is the 58th-largest country in the world. It is comparable in size to the US state of California, and somewhat larger than Paraguay.
Iraq mainly consists of desert, but between the two major rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) the area is fertile, the rivers carrying about 60 million cubic metres (78 million cu. yd) of silt annually to the delta.
The north of the country is mostly composed of mountains; the highest
point being at 3,611 metres (11,847 ft) point, unnamed on the map
opposite, but known locally as Cheekah Dar (black tent). Iraq has a small coastline along the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab (known as arvandrūd: اروندرود among Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many were drained in the 1990s.
The local climate is mostly desert,
with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers. The northern
mountainous regions have cold winters with occasional heavy snows,
sometimes causing extensive flooding.
Comprising 112 billion barrels (1.78×1010 m³) of proven oil, Iraq ranks second in the world behind Saudi Arabia in the amount of Oil reserves[citation needed]; the United States Department of Energy estimates that up to 90% of the country remains unexplored. These regions could yield an additional 100 billion barrels (1.6×1010 m³). Iraq's oil production costs are among the lowest in the world, but only about 2,000 oil wells have been drilled in Iraq, compared with about 1 million wells in Texas alone.[8]
History
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Ancient Mesopotamia
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The region of Iraq was historically known as Mesopotamia (Greek: "between the rivers"). It was home to the world's first known civilization, the Sumerian culture, followed by the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, whose influence extended into neighboring regions as early as 5000 BC. These civilizations produced some of the earliest writing and some of the first sciences, mathematics, laws and philosophies of the world; hence its common epithet, the "Cradle of Civilization".
In the sixth century BC, Cyrus the Great conquered the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and Mesopotamia was subsumed in the Achaemenid Persian Empire for nearly four centuries. Alexander the Great conque
Classical
from 
