Iraq (Arabic:  (al-‘Irāq, Kurdish: عيَراق), officially the Republic of Iraq, is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing most of Mesopotamia as well as the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. It shares a border with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan to the west, Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, and Iran (Persia) to the east. It has a very narrow section of coastline at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf. It is considered the place where a settled society to have manifested all the features needed to qualify fully as a "civilization" first appeared in the world—the civilization known as Sumeria.

Large parts of Iraq consist of desert, but the area between the two major rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) is fertile, with the rivers carrying about 60 million cubic metres (78 million cu. yd) of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is largely mountainous, with the highest point being a 3,611 metres (11,847 ft) point, unnamed on the map opposite, but known locally as Cheekah Dar (black tent). Iraq has a small coastline with the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab (known as arvandrūd: اروندرود among Iranians) there used to be marshlands, but many of these were drained in the 1990s. However, since roughly the beginning of the 2003 war, ecological restoration efforts have begun, with moderate success in conserving and regenerating the marshes.