- published: 12 Jul 2010
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Chamchamal (Kurdish: Çemçemall چهمچهماڵ, Arabic جمجمال, ) is a Kurdish city located in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The city is a 30 minutes drive east from Kirkuk and an hour west of Sulaymaniyah. The population was 58,000 in 2003. More recent reports cite a population of 250,000, including 25,000 Arabs.
Kurdish Sorani is spoken by most inhabitants.
The city has a historic citadel, and early Western observers of the region speculated that it has been inhabited since the Sassanid period. The Chamchamal valley is also home to important paleolithic sites of Jarmo and Zarzi.