HamadanHamadan or Hamedan (ˌhæməˈdæn , همدان, Hamedān, hæmeˈdɒːn, Old Persian: Haŋgmetana, Ecbatana) is the capital city of Hamadan Province of Iran. At the 2019 census, its population was 783,302 in 230,775 families. Hamedan is believed to be among the oldest Iranian cities. It is possible that it was occupied by the Assyrians in 1100 BCE; the Ancient Greek historian, Herodotus, states that it was the capital of the Medes, around 700 BCE. Hamedan has a green mountainous area in the foothills of the 3,574-meter Alvand Mountain, in the midwest part of Iran.
SulaymaniyahSulaymaniyah, also spelled Slemani (Silêmanî; as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar (Ezmer), Goizha (Goyje) and Qaiwan (Qeywan) Mountains in the northeast, Baranan Mountain in the south and the Tasluja Hills in the west. The city has a semi-arid climate with very hot dry summers and cold wet winters. From its foundation Sulaymaniyah was always a center of great poets, writers, historians, politicians, scholars and singers, such as Nalî, Mahwi, and Piramerd.
ErzurumErzurum (Կարին; Erzirom) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as its coat-of-arms, a motif that has been a common symbol throughout Anatolia since the Bronze Age. Erzurum has winter sports facilities and hosted the 2011 Winter Universiade. The city was originally known in Armenian as Karno K'aghak' (Կարնոյ քաղաք), meaning city of Karin, to distinguish it from the district of Karin (Կարին).
Lorestan provinceLorestan province (also written Luristan, Lurestan, or Loristan, استان لرستان) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the western part of the country in the Zagros Mountains and covers an area of 28,392 km2. Its capital is the city of Khorramabad. At the time of the National Census in 2006, the province had a population of 1,689,650 in 382,805 households. The following census in 2011 counted 1,754,243 in 462,260 households. In 2014 it was placed in Region 4.
SoraniSorani Kurdish or Central Kurdish (کوردیی ناوەندی/Kurdî Nawendî), also called Sorani (سۆرانی/Soranî), is a Kurdish dialect or a language that is spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Sorani is one of the two official languages of Iraq, along with Arabic, and is in administrative documents simply referred to as "Kurdish".
Kermanshah provinceKermanshah Province (Ostān-e Kermanšah, Parêzgeha Kirmaşan) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran and one of the provinces which border Iraq. The province was known from 1969 to 1986 as Kermanshahan, and from 1986 to 1995 as Bakhtaran. The capital of the province is the city of Kermanshah. According to a 2014 segmentation by the Ministry of Interior, it is the center of Region 4, with the region's central secretariat located in Kermanshah. A majority of people in Kermanshah Province are Shia, and there are Sunni and Yarsani minority groups.
ZazasThe Zazas (Goranî) are a people in eastern Turkey who traditionally speak the Zaza language, a western Iranian language written in the Latin script. Their heartland consists of Tunceli and Bingöl provinces and parts of Elazığ, Erzincan and Diyarbakır provinces. Zazas generally consider themselves Kurds, and are often described as Zaza Kurds by scholars. According to Encyclopædia Iranica the endonym Dimlī or Dīmla was derived from Daylam region in Northern Iran, and appears in Armenian historical records as delmik, dlmik, which was proposed to be derived from Middle Iranian *dēlmīk meaning Daylamite.
KhanaqinKhanaqin (خانقين; خانەقین) is the central city of Khanaqin District in Diyala Governorate, Iraq, near the Iranian border (8 km) on the Alwand tributary of the Diyala River. The town is populated by Kurds who speak the Southern Kurdish dialect. Khanaqin is situated on the main road which Shia pilgrims use when visiting holy Islamic cities. The city is moreover rich in oil and the first Iraqi oil refinery and oil pipeline was built nearby in 1927. The main tribes of Khanaqin include Kalhor, Feyli, Zand, Malekshahi Suramiri, Arkavazi and Zangana.
Lake UrmiaLake Urmia is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea. At its greatest extent, it was the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, with a surface area of approximately , a length of , a width of , and a maximum depth of .
HalabjaHalabja (Helebce, حلبجة) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of Halabja Governorate, located about northeast of Baghdad and from the Iranian border. The city lies at the base of what is often referred to as the greater Hewraman region stretching across the Iran–Iraq border. Halabja is surrounded by Hawraman and Shnrwe range in the northeast, Balambo range in the south and Sirwan river in the west. The Kurds in the city of Halabja generally speak only the Sorani dialect of Kurdish, but some residents of the surrounding villages speak the Hewrami dialect.
