Tal Afar
|
Telafer تلعفر or تل عفر Tal Afar |
|
|---|---|
|
|
 Telafer
|
|
| Coordinates: 36°22′27″N 42°26′36″E / 36.37417°N 42.44333°E | |
| Country |
 Iraq
|
| Governorate | Nineveh Province |
| Occupation |
 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
|
| Elevation | 1,350 ft (410 m) |
| Population (2014) | |
| • Total | 200,000 |
Tal Afar (Turkish: Telafer), pronounced /ta.la.fer/ and also spelt Tal'Afar, Tall Afar, Tell Afar or Tel Afar, is a city and district in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq, 63 km west of Mosul, 52 km east of Sinjar and 200 km north west of Kirkuk.
While no official census data exists, the city which had been assessed to have a population of approximately 200,000, had dropped to 80,000, as of 2007, nearly all of whom are Iraqi Turkmen. In Tal Afar itself, the population is mostly Turkmen, about 75 per cent of whom were Sunni Muslims, while a quarter were Shi’ites. While most residents can speak Arabic, Iraqi Turkmen, a Turkic language, is the most common language used throughout the city.
Tal Afar, along with Altun Kupri, Amerli, Bashir, Bustamli, Mahalabiyah, Qarah Tappah, Sulaiman Bek, Taza Khurmatu, Tuz Khormato, and Yankjah, make up the largest Turkmen-majority cities in Iraq, while Mosul, Kirkuk, Kifri, Daquq, Muqdadiyah, Jalawla, and Saadiyah have significant Turkmen minority populations.
10 kilometres (6.2 mi) southwest of the town of Tal Afar are the mounds of Yarim Tepe which yielded remains from the Halafian culture from the Hassuna, Halaf and Ubaid periods, between 7,000 and 4,500 BC.
...
Wikipedia