The Land

The land inhabited by the Iraqi Kurds consists of mountain ranges, hillsides with scattered and scrubby oak forests, and fertile river valleys that can support orchards and vineyards; major rivers that flow through northern Iraq are the Greater Zab, the Lesser Zab, the Diyala, and most importantly the Tigris.

The climate is severe. In the northern parts, temperatures fall to -20°F in the winter and rise above 100°F in the summer. In the lower lands, the climate is milder; there, although temperatures are consistently high, they are more predictable, and transportation is easier along the Tigris River Valley.

The area is supported mostly by winter snowfall in the mountains that runs off every year into the rivers. There is ample precipitation in the Kurdish mountain areas to support extensive agriculture, but the amount of fertile land is too small for northern Iraq to become a major agricultural region.

The Kurdish area includes a good portion of the vast Iraqi oil fields, especially in the province of Mosul, around which international politics have swirled since before World War I. The largest city in northern Iraq is the oil town of Kirkuk, which was about half-and-half Kurdish and Turkmen before the Iraqi government systematically reduced the Kurdish and increased the Arab population in the 1970s. The towns of Arbil* and Sulemaniye are almost entirely Kurdish.

^*Also spelled Erbil and Irbil; this is an Arabic word (the Kurdish name for the town is Hawler) and the Arabic alphabet does not completely specify vowels at the beginnings of words. Westerners spell it as they think it sounds.

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