Taxi drivers in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, are keen to tell every non-Kurdish person they give a ride to that there are more hotels in their city than in Paris. The drivers proudly list hotels’ names and the services they provide.
Erbil is the fourth-largest city in Iraq, after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, and is nearly 360 km (224 miles) from the capital. Its population: 1 million. Erbil province is bordered by Turkey to the north and Iran to the east; its total area is 15,074 square km (5,820 square miles).