Mosul is a major city in northern Iraq, serving as the capital of Nineveh Governorate Approximately 400 km (250 mi) north of Baghdad, Mosul lies on the Tigris river. The Mosul metropolitan area has grown from the old city on the western side to encompass substantial areas on both the “Left Bank” (east side) and the “Right Bank” (west side), as locals call the two riverbanks. Mosul encloses the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on its east side.
The reason for the name is likely that the word is of Arabic origin meaning “what connects two things” because it connected between the two banks of the Tigris when it was built, and it was said between the island and Iraq, and it was said that it connects between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The city also has several nicknames by which it is known, such as Umm al-Rabee’in due to the mild weather in it in the spring and autumn, and the humpback due to the steepness of the Tigris when passing through it, or the beacon of the Al-Nuri Mosque.
Mosul has been famous since ancient times for its importance as an important commercial center because of its geographical location as the northern gateway to Iraq. The city is connected to Turkey and Aleppo by a railway built by the Germans before World War I, in addition to the presence of a small airport for domestic lines. Mosul was and still is the center of the largest areas of grain production and the rest of agricultural products such as legumes and vegetables in Iraq. The city is affected economically by the good and bad agricultural seasons, as the economic income of the people fluctuates clearly and affects many aspects of economic life in it. Agriculture expanded and diversified there after the completion of some irrigation projects on the Mosul Dam and the Zab River, and some industrial crops such as corn and cotton were grown under traditional and modern irrigation systems. The discovery of oil in Mosul since the thirties of the twentieth century has led to the city gaining great importance in the international markets, both in terms of raw materials and refined products of oil.
The city was also famous for the production of soft cotton fabrics, from which the name muslin is derived, a famous cotton garment.
Mosul also has the most important sugar factories in Iraq, as well as three cement factories.
