Asia

[Visited: December 2021]

Oh, I had seen many pictures before, of other travellers posing for the semi-spheres of the Martyr's Memorial in Baghdad. I already know what they look like. When I am on the way there from the city centre, the driver again makes many weird mistakes, gets bogged down in a neighbourhood with narrow streets, takes wrong turns, so it takes much more time than necessary to reach the destination. We are on our way to Al Shaheed Monument, originally designed as a memorial for the Iraqi soldiers who died in the bloody and tragic war against Iran between 1980 and 1988 by Saddam Hussein. When we finally leave the car, the enormous turquoise half-domes are visible from a distance. We enter the vast park, which appears empty. After the traffic jams we had to get through to reach the park, it comes as a bit of a surprise.
We walk to the domes. They are split, and don't stand opposite each other. When we reach the first half-dome, we see that there is quite some space between them. One has an Iraqi flag seemingly coming up from the ground, while the other has a below-ground museum. The stairs are, however, blocked. We walk to the half-dome with the flag, and notice two guards in uniform, who are posing with a boy who also wears a uniform. It is an endearing sight - when I take their picture, they put on very serious faces. We walk around the half-dome, look up at it and marvel at its circular shape. The half-domes together would form a typical Abbasid-era dome. The artist Ismail Fatah Al Turk placed the two domes such that there would be an interplay between the two of them, with an eternal flame in between them.
The Martyr's Memorial was commissioned early after the start of the war in 1981, and completed in 1983, five years before the war would end. It was part of a greater plan to create an image of Saddam Hussein as a victorious, successful leader, together with two other monuments in Baghdad. Even though the museum is supposedly closed, we still manage to talk ourselves in, to see the real face of this monument. The beauty of the two half-domes that is such a striking sight, unravels quickly once you walk past the permanent waterfall and enter the underground hall, that you are confronted with Iraq's violent recent history. Yes, the fallen of the war with Iran are commemorated. But after the demise of Saddam, a permanent exhibition has been added which shows the cruel suppression he exerted on his own people to keep a tight grip on the country. Thousands of pictures remind of those who perished, there are showcases of the torture instruments and methods used, and my guide is visibly touched by what he sees - his father miraculously escaped death at the hands of the dictator. We are both quiet when we walk the stairs up. The sun is shining now, and we walk around the half-domes again to see the beauty that is certainly also here.

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Martyr's Memorial > Iraq > Asia

[Visited: December 2021]

Around the World in 80 Clicks

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