Erbil [key], city and capital of Kurdistan Region, N Iraq. A commercial, agricultural, and administrative center with a predominantly Kurdish population, it is one of the world's oldest continually settled towns. The ancient Sumerian and Assyrian city of Urbillum (Arbela) was on this site. The oldest section of the city, at the heart of of modern Erbil, is on an artificial mound surmounted by an old Turkish fort. Since 1992 Erbil has been one of the main towns of Iraq's Kurdish region, and it became the capital of a unified Kurdish autonomous region in 2006.
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