Iraq
Mesopotamia, the land between two rivers
Iraq is the modern heir of Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates where cities, writing, and law first arose more than five thousand years ago. From the ruins of Babylon and Ur to the shrines of Najaf and Karbala, it carries one of the deepest historical legacies on Earth. Vast oil reserves give it enormous potential, even as decades of war, sanctions, and sectarian conflict have tested a diverse society of Shia and Sunni Arabs, Kurds, and ancient minorities.
The fertile alluvial plain of the Tigris and Euphrates runs through the center of the country, framed by western and southern deserts and the Zagros and Kurdish mountains of the northeast, where Cheekha Dar is the highest point. The two rivers join near the Gulf in the marshlands of the south. The climate is hot and arid. Petroleum dominates the economy, with Iraq among the world's largest oil producers, alongside dates and agriculture in the river valleys.
Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, and Assyria rose along these rivers, followed by the Islamic golden age under the Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad. Ottoman rule gave way to a British mandate and a monarchy, then a republic and the long Baathist dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. The US-led invasion of 2003, insurgency, and the rise and defeat of the Islamic State reshaped the country. The capital, Baghdad, anchors a federal state with an autonomous Kurdistan region in the north.