Iraq · 20th century
As-Salam Palace (Arabic: قصر السلام, lit. 'Peace Palace') is a palace located on Al-Kindi Street in the Green Zone of Baghdad, Iraq. Rather than serving as the residence of the former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein and his family, it primarily housed visiting foreign dignitaries. Since 2012, the palace has been certified as a Republican Palace.
As-Salam palace has 200 rooms with approximately 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) of floor space. There are six floors, three of which are usable (others serve as 'false floors'), and two large ballrooms. The palace is internally lined with marble floors decorated with hundreds of thousands of hand-cut pieces, granite walls, and ceilings also adorned with thousands of hand-carved and inlaid hand-painted flowers.
The palace is surrounded by a sequence of square tiles bearing the initials of Saddam Hussein (S & H); the Arabic letters are "Saad" & "Haa"." The tiles are clearly visible from the top of the palace. Iraqis report that the palace dome used to be topped with a life-sized statue of Saddam.
Fireplaces around the lake in front of the palace are actually vents used to provide fresh air to bunkers below the lake. The bunkers are now inaccessible, having been flooded and sealed off by coalition forces.
In the palace basement lies an entrance to one of many concrete tunnels running beneath the city of Baghdad. These ventilated tunnels were built to provide access to other palaces, government facilities and Baghdad International Airport.
Al Salam palace is located on the site of the former Republican Guard Headquarters, which was destroyed during Operation Desert Storm of the Gulf War. The palace was commissioned by Saddam Hussein, and construction was completed in late 1999 at a cost ranging from $100 million to $1 billion.
As-Salam Palace was taken over by U.S.-led Coalition forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq in the Iraq War. The edifice sustained significant damage from seven guided bombs during the shock and awe campaign, and was then ransacked from below when left unguarded.
The palace served as headquarters for the Joint Area Support Group, and was known to Coalition forces as Camp Prosperity and Forward Operating Base (FOB) Prosperity.
The palace formerly displayed four busts of Saddam Hussein on the corners, which were removed by US forces, who also toppled his statue in Firdos Square.
Text adapted from “As-Salam Palace” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
As-Salam Palace ranks #2,357 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #8 of the 15 mapped in Iraq. Founded 1999 — one of 169 atlas entries founded in the 20th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,803 times in the last 60 days, more than 82% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Iraq compares in the castle statistics.
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