Citadel of Erbil
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How it came to be
The Citadel of Erbil is a tell, a mound built up by generations living and rebuilding on the same spot, at the centre of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. It rises 25 to 32 m above the plain, and its top forms an oval of about 430 by 340 m. Clear evidence of occupation goes back to the 5th millennium BC.
The town appears in written sources from very early times under names such as Irbilum, Urbilum, Arbail and Arbela. In the Neo-Assyrian period it was an important political and religious centre, and Ishtar of Arbela was one of the principal goddesses of Assyria. In 331 BC Alexander the Great fought the Battle of Gaugamela nearby.
In 1258 the Mongols took the citadel after a six-month siege. The houses standing today date mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries, and the alleys of the late Ottoman town fan out from the main gate. In 1960 more than 60 houses, a mosque and a school were pulled down for a straight road between the southern and northern gates. In 2007 the remaining 840 families were moved out for a restoration project, and one family was allowed to stay so that habitation would not be broken. The citadel was inscribed in 2014.
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