KERKUK, or QERQ13Q  , the chief town of a sanjak in the Mosul vilayet of Asiatic Turkey, situated among the foot hills of the Kurdistan Mountains at an elevation of about l Too ft. on both banks of the Khassa Chai, a tributary of the Tigris, known in its lower course as Adhem . Pop. estimated at 12,000 to 15,000, chiefly Mahommedan Kurds . Owing to its position at the junction of several routes, Kerkuk has a brisk transit trade in hides, Persian silks and cottons, colouring materials, fruit and timber; but it owes its principal importance to its petroleum and naphtha springs . There are also natural warm springs at Kerkuk, used to supply baths and reputed to have valuable medical properties . In the neighbourhood of the city is a burning mountain, locally famous for many centuries . Kerkuk is evidently an ancient site, the citadel standing upon an artificial mound 130 ft. high . It was ametropolitan see of the Chaldean Christians . There is a Jewish quarter beneath the citadel, and the reputed sarcophagi of Daniel and the Hebrew children are shown in one of the mosques . (J . P .