Bakhdida

Also known as Al-Hamdaniya, Qaraqosh

Qaraqosh (; (official name), or , also known as al-Ḥamdāniyya or Qara-Qūš; a Turkic placename meaning "Black Bird") is a city in the Nineveh Governorate, of Iraq located about southeast of the city of Mosul and west of Erbil amid agricultural lands, close to the ruins of the ancient Assyrian cities Kalhu and Nineveh. The city has an Assyrian Christian majority.

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Place details

Locality: الحمدانية
Region: محافظة نینوى
Country: العراق
Population: 50,000
Timezone: Asia/Baghdad

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Key facts

Settlement.official_name: Qaraqosh
Settlement.image_skyline: Iraqvillagebaghdeda.JPG
Settlement.imagesize: 250px
Settlement.image_caption: A view of Bakhdida
Settlement.pushpin_map: Iraq
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Governorate
Settlement.subdivision_name1: Nineveh
Settlement.subdivision_type2: Municipality
Settlement.subdivision_name2: Al-Hamdaniya District
Settlement.leader_title: Mayor
Settlement.leader_name: Isam Behnam Da'aboul
Settlement.population_total: 35,000
Settlement.population_note: 50,000
Settlement.timezone: Arabia Standard Time
Settlement.utc_offset: +3

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Population: 18000
Official website: www.bakhdida.com
Image: Iraqvillagebaghdeda.JPG

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Commons category: Bakhdida

Sources (3)

via Wikidata · CC0

~10 min read

Article

18 sections

Contents

Etymology
Security
Education
History
Pre-Christian accounts
Early Christian history
Raids of Persians and Kurds
Afshar–Ottoman wars
After the 2003 US invasion
Politics since 2005
IS attacks and invasion
Post–IS
Geography
Climate
Archaeology
See also
References
External links

Qaraqosh is connected to the main city of Mosul by two main roads. The first runs through the Assyrian towns of Bartella and Karamlesh, which connects to the city of Erbil as well. The second, which was gravel before being paved in the 1990s, is direct to Mosul. All of its Assyrian Christian citizens fled to the Kurdistan Region after the IS invasion on August 6, 2014. The town was under control of IS until October 19, 2016, when it was liberated as part of the Battle of Mosul after which residents have begun to return. According to archbishop Nizar Semaan, by July 2024 about half of the city's original 50,000 residents had returned to Qaraqosh.