Don't Pass on Iraq Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jordan

While Iraq's longest border is with its neighbour to the east, Iran (1,599 km), its shortest border is to the west with Jordan (179 km). The Saudis lie to the south (811 km), Kuwait to the southeast (254 km), Turkey to the north (367 km), and Syria to the northwest (599 km).

In fact, Iraq's shortest border is its coast. There are only 58 km of coastline, which makes access to all of the oil underneath the water very limited.

Answer: Kurds

The Kurds are an ethnic group whose traditional lands span from Turkey to Iran, but, they do not have their own country, nor do they have autonomy in all of the countries that they live in. In 1970, Iraq granted autonomy to the Kurds living in the northeastern part of the country. Iraq was actually the first country to give Kurds an autonomy, though it was very limited and limiting.

It was only in 1991 when the Americans launched their 'Desert Storm' campaign against Saddam Hussein that the Kurds started actually getting recognition.

Answer: Tigris

The Tigris is one of the two major rivers of Iraq, along with the Euphrates. Together they formed the basis of the Mesopotamian Empire and created the Fertile Crescent. This was a region of prosperity, innovation and invention in the Neolithic Era, almost 10,000 years ago, and continued for a long time. Many empires sought out this region for conquest; the Greeks, the Persians, the British, to name a few throughout the ages.

The modern-day Tigris starts in Turkey and flows for 1750 km to border Syria and finally enters into Iraq. It flows through Mosul, Baghdad, and empties into the Persian Gulf.

Answer: Nineveh

On the eastern bank of the Tigris stands the city Nineveh opposite the modern city of Mosul, on the western bank. Mosul is a major city of Iraq with a tumultuous history. Mosul itself is an old city, started in 570 CE when Assyrians founded the Mar Ishaya Monastery.

In recent times, it was a focal point for the war against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The ISIL forces had taken over the city in June 2014 and began executing and, in actuality, massacring people who did not fit in with their vision, i.e., non-Sunni Muslims. It took just over three years for Iraqi forces to take back the city.

Answer: Desert

Al-Hajarah and Al-Dibdibah are the names of the two sections of Iraq's southern desert, both of which connect to the Arabian Desert - the large desert that dominates the Arabian Peninsula. Though there are large fertile tracts of land in Iraq, there is still about 40% of the country that is a desert.

These areas are sparsely inhabited, and mostly by Bedouins. These are traditionally nomadic people who are desert travellers.

Answer: Kingdom of Araba

Hatra was an ancient city that can now be found in the Nineveh Governorate (province) in Iraq. Its name means 'enclosure' and it was a very strong fortified city that became the capital of the Kingdom of Araba, a minor kingdom that was situated in between two majestic empires, the Parthians and the Romans. Hatra itself was likely built by the Seleucids, however it became great in the first and second centuries CE.

It withstood many attacks but ultimately fell to Sassanid king Shapur I who razed it to the ground.

Answer: Zagros Mountains

Cheekha Dar is the tallest point in Iraq, and it is a peak in these mountains which run from Turkey to Iran, but it certainly isn't the tallest peak in the Zagros Mountains range. The Zagros Mountains were said to be the entrance to the Mesopotamian underworld. The name "Cheekha Dar" means 'black tent', for the triangular shape of the peak and the dark colour of the earth.

Answer: Ziggurat

The ruins of Ur lie southwest of the modern city of Nasiriya, the capital city of the Dhi Qar Governorate (province). This province corresponds to the ancient civilization of Sumer, once a fountain of knowledge and wisdom. The city of Ur was a very important one, as the coast had once reached all the way up to Ur.

A gigantic ziggurat (stepped pyramid) had been built there, and its ruins remain to this day. The Great Ziggurat of Ur was first excavated in the 1920s by the British and was discovered to be a temple to the moon goddess Nanna who was the patron of the city.

Answer: False

Erbil is a city in northern Iraq, and it also is the largest city in the Iraqi Kurdistan region. There is evidence that the city has been around for at least seven millennia, though some scholars suspect it may even be older than that. At the city's center is a citadel as old as the city that was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. This citadel was important to the city and its defenders, as Erbil was attacked (and conquered) many times.

Erbil can be a very hot and dry city in the summer months, with an average high of 42 degrees! In the winter, it is not unusual to have days where the temperatures go below the freezing mark. In 2010 an international airport was opened in Erbil with an extra long runway of nearly five kilometers.

Answer: Basra

Basra (or Al-Basrah) is a city in southern Iraq. It is quite close to the Persian Gulf and Iraq's meager coastline, and it serves as an important point through which much of Iraq's oil flows. This oil, the lifeblood of the Iraqi economy, makes Basra such an important city.

While Basra has been around for 14 centuries, it has only really seen a surge in its population in the past half-century. It is very close to both the Iranian border as well as the Kuwaiti border, and was hit very hard in the Iran-Iraq conflict of the 80s. However, it has since re-emerged as a very important city for Iraq.