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Erbil
Capital and largest city of Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Erbil

Erbil, also called Hawler, is the capital and most populated city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the capital of the Erbil Governorate.

Plan a trip to Erbil→From Kirkuk

Erbil is described as the region's cultural, economic, industrial, educational and medical hub.

Get in

Getting to Erbil

Comprehensive and up to date info on visa requirements and cost can be found in the article Iraqi Kurdistan under Get in.

  1. 01
    Erbil International Airport

    Serves Northern Iraq with a growing number of international airlines.

  2. 02
    Erbil International General Terminal
See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Citadel of Erbil
  2. 02
    Grand Mosque

    Erbil's historic central mosque, still open despite renovations on the Citadel.

  3. 03
    Kurdish Textile Museum
  4. 04
    Erbil Gem Museum

    52R5+3H.

  5. 05
    Mudhafaria Minaret
  6. 06
    Qaysari Market
Do

Things to do

Stroll around in the deserted city inside the citadel in the centre of Erbil. Hundreds of houses that appears to have been abandoned in a hurry. Walk into the court yards, sleeping rooms and bed rooms or up to the rooftop terraces to enjoy a spectacular panorama of Erbil or ponder what life might have been in this place before the inhabitants were repopulated.

  1. 01
    Erbil Marathon

    Sami Abdulrahman Park, info@erbilmarathon.krd.

Eat

Where to eat

Many good restaurants exist in Erbil. However, the vast majority serve kebabs and chicken, with some Lebanese and Turkish restaurants. Options for foreign food are limited. Most restaurants, except those in high-end hotels, do not serve alcohol or accept credit cards. Iskan Street. Popular street lined with cheap Kurdish and Turkish kebab shops, as well as one of the center of (male) social gathering.

  1. 01
    Kebab Yasin
  2. 02
    Dawa 2
How locals move

Getting around Erbil the local way

  • Get aroundCompared with other cities in the Middle East, shared taxis and buses are very infrequent and impractical.

From Wikivoyage: Erbil, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.