A map of memory
Cities & Regions
From ancient Hewlêr to defiant Kobanê, ten cities map the geography of the Kurds. Click any pin to enter its world.
Featured cities
Featured cities
Amed (Diyarbakır)
The Black City, unofficial capital of the Kurds in Turkey, ringed by basalt walls built two millennia ago.
Population · 1,100,000
Hewlêr (Erbil)
The capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its towering citadel bears witness to six thousand years of life.
Population · 1,500,000
Kobanê
The city that stood against ISIS in 2014, becoming a worldwide symbol of Kurdish resistance.
Population · 100,000
Mahabad
The city of the first Kurdish Republic, which stood for only eleven months in 1946, but remains a symbol.
Population · 170,000
Silêmanî (Sulaymaniyah)
The cultural capital of the Kurds, founded by Ibrahim Pasha Baban in 1784. Home to the most important Kurdish newspapers and modern poets.
Population · 800,000
All cities
All cities
Afrîn
The city of olives in northern Syria, home to the region's oldest olive groves.
Population · 200,000
Duhok
The city of mountains and water in the north of the Kurdistan Region, and its gateway to Turkey.
Population · 350,000
Qamişlo
The largest of the Kurdish cities of Syria, founded in 1926 on the Turkish border.
Population · 200,000
Sine (Sanandaj)
The cultural capital of the Kurds of Iran, and seat of the Ardalan emirate.
Population · 415,000
Wan (Van)
A city on Lake Van, the largest lake in Anatolia, and the historical centre of the Urartian kingdom.
Population · 350,000