Description & Facts: You won't often see the city of Erbil listed on airport departure boards across the world. Despite being the principal international gateway to a region that is home to some of the most stunning natural landscapes, historically significant archaeological sities, including the first area of human habitation, visitor numbers are low.

This is beacuse Erbil is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous republic that has spent the past two decades embroiled in conflicts around the Persian Gulf. The Kurdish region is now enjoying relative safety and prosperity, while much of Iraq remains mired in tension following the fall of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party. Its government trumpets the fact that since March 2003 not one coalition soldier has died nor a single foreigner been kidnapped in the areas it administers.

A region of federal Iraq, Kurdistan is bordered by Syria to the west, Iran to the east and Turkey to the north. It is around the same size as Scotland, with a land area of approximately 30,888 sq miles (80,000 km2) and is home to a population of just under 4 million (according to 2008 estimates).

Since its liberation in 2003 the region has made tremendous progress, transitioning into a market economy and becoming known, in the words of its President Massoud Barzani, as "the other Iraq". This change is not any more evident then in the capital Erbil, aslo known as Arbil, Irbil or locally as Hewler, where significant investment from foreign benefactors has resulted in the construction of new housing estates, hotel and retail developments and, most notably, a new international airport.

As a land-locked country, Kurdistan has been quick to acknowledge the importance of air travel to its regeneration. In the past the only way for civilians or foreign troops to access its lands had been via a flight to one of its eighbours and a subsequent long and gruelling road journey. Although a small airstrip has been located just outside of Erbil, it had exclusively been used as a northern base of Iraqi fighters in their battle agains foreign insurgents in the Kurdish mountains.

This facility was captured by Kurdisk Peshmarga (the local army) in March 1991 at the end of the First Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm). It was left abandoned for the next decade before being re-opened in March 2003 to support Allied forces during the most recent Iraqi conflict, becoming a landing and refulling point for US fighters.

by the end of the same year, following the liberation of Iraq, the facility began its slow transition from a military to civilian operation, thanks to US investment.