page_title: Erbil
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Erbil / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Chaldean Catholic Cathedral of Saint Joseph (Mar Yousif) in Ankawa, a suburb of Arbil.
context_page_description: Erbil or Hawler, known in ancient history as Arbela and also spelled Arbil, Arbel and Irbil, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. It has about 879,000 inhabitants, and Erbil Governorate has a permanent population of 2,009,367 as of 2015.
  Human settlement at Erbil may be dated back to the 5th millennium BC, which would make the city one of the oldest continuously inhabited areas in the world. At the heart of the city is the ancient Citadel of Erbil and Mudhafaria Minaret. The earliest historical reference to the region dates to the Third Dynasty of Ur of Sumer, when King Shulgi mentioned the city of Urbilum. The city was later conquered by the Assyrians.
  Erbil became an integral part of the kingdom of Assyria by the 21st century BC through to the end of the seventh century BC, after it was captured by the Gutians, and it was known in Assyrian annals variously as Urbilim, Arbela and Arba-ilu.
caption: Chaldean Catholic Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Ankawa, a suburb of Erbil
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