Arak, Iran
Arak (, Arâk; ) is a city in the Central District of Arak County, Markazi province, Iran, serving as capital of the district, the county, and the province. At the 2006 National Census, its population was 438,338 in 121,597 households. The following census in 2011 counted 484,212 people in 148,249 households. The latest census in 2016 showed a population of 520,944 people in 165,709 households. The city is nicknamed the "Industrial Capital of Iran". As a major industrial city, Arak hosts several industrial factories inside and within a few kilometers outside the city, including the factory of Machine Sazi Arak and the Iranian Aluminium Company. These factories produce nearly half of the needs of the country in steel, petrochemical, and locomotive industries. Etymology Arâk The term Arâk remains from a name given to the region since the medieval period. It derives from Arabic al-ʿIrāq, meaning "root", itself derived possibly from Akkadian Uruk (, Erech). But new research has shown that the word Arak has the same roots with the words Iran and Arran, and the name Iraq is an Arabicized Persian word. During the Seljuk era, a region comprising the whole territory of Media (northwestern Iran) and the lower part