Iraq Map

About Iraq

Iraq occupies most of ancient Mesopotamia, the land "between the rivers" Tigris and Euphrates. It covers about 438,317 square kilometers and has around 47 million people (UN World Population Prospects, 2025 estimate); its first nationwide census since 1987, held in November 2024, counted just over 46 million. Iraq borders Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and reaches the sea only along a short stretch of coast at the head of the Persian Gulf, around the Faw peninsula and the port of Umm Qasr. It is a federal parliamentary republic divided into 19 governorates (muhafazat), four of which (Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok and Halabja, recognized by parliament as a governorate in 2025) make up the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

Two rivers and four landscapes

Both great rivers rise in Turkey. The Euphrates enters from Syria and flows southeast past Haditha, Ramadi and Nasiriyah; the Tigris enters near the Turkish-Syrian border and passes Mosul, Samarra and Baghdad. They join at Qurna to form the Shatt al-Arab, whose lower course forms the border with Iran. Dams upstream in Turkey, Syria and Iran have cut the flow sharply, and water scarcity and salinity are now among Iraq's most serious problems (see rivers of Asia).

• The alluvial plain between and along the rivers, from Baghdad to Basra, holds most of the population and farmland; dates have been grown here for millennia.
• The Mesopotamian Marshes (Ahwar) in the far south were largely drained in the 1990s and partly reflooded after 2003; they were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016 together with the ruins of Ur, Uruk and Eridu.
• The western desert of Anbar, an extension of the Syrian Desert, covers roughly a third of the country and is crossed by the highway to Jordan.
• The northern mountains of Kurdistan, part of the Zagros and Taurus systems, rise to Cheekha Dar (about 3,611 m) on the Iranian border, the country's highest point.

Climate and when to visit

Summers on the plains are among the hottest anywhere: Baghdad and Basra often exceed 45°C in July and August, and Basra has recorded above 50°C. Dust storms are common in spring and summer. Winters are mild in the south and cool in Baghdad, while the Kurdistan Region gets real winters with snow in the mountains. The most comfortable months to travel are October to April for the south and center, and spring or autumn for the north.

Cities and their roles

• Baghdad - The capital and by far the largest city, built on both banks of the Tigris; founded by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in 762, it was one of the great cities of the medieval world
• Basra - The main city of the south and the center of the oil industry, on the Shatt al-Arab; the nearby Grand Faw Port is meant to anchor the planned Development Road rail and highway link to Turkey
• Mosul - The main city of the north, on the Tigris opposite the ruins of Nineveh; held by the Islamic State group from 2014 until 2017, when its old city was largely destroyed, and since partly rebuilt
• Erbil - Capital of the Kurdistan Region, around a citadel mound inhabited for thousands of years and listed by UNESCO
• Najaf and Karbala - Shia holy cities with the shrines of Imam Ali and Imam Husayn; the annual Arbaeen walk to Karbala is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world

How modern Iraq took shape

Sumer, Akkad, Babylon and Assyria all rose in this region; cuneiform writing developed in the cities of the south during the 4th millennium BCE, and Babylon (inscribed by UNESCO in 2019) lies near Hillah. Under the Ottomans the area was governed as three provinces, Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. After World War I, Britain combined them into a League of Nations mandate under a monarchy established in 1921, and Iraq became independent in 1932. The monarchy was overthrown in 1958, and Saddam Hussein ruled from 1979 until the US-led invasion of 2003; in between came the 1980-88 war with Iran and the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. The 2005 constitution created today's federal system and recognized the Kurdistan Region. In 2014 the Islamic State group seized much of the north and west, including Mosul, and it lost its last territory in Iraq in 2017. Arabic and Kurdish are the official languages; most Iraqis are Muslim, with a Shia majority and a large Sunni population, alongside smaller Christian, Yazidi, Mandaean and Turkmen communities.

Oil provides almost all government revenue; Iraq holds some of the world's largest proven reserves and is one of the largest producers in OPEC. After the November 2025 parliamentary election, Ali al-Zaidi became prime minister in May 2026.