Al Faw Palace

While in Baghdad, I was able to accomplish two goals; see an old friend I haven't seen in years and see one of Saddam's palaces. Mission completed! We were able to get a quick tour of Al Faw Palace...

The quick history of the city of Faw: It was an oil rich city that lies on the Al Faw peninsula. Having both water and oil, it became a target for Iranian control and in 1986, the Iranians captured the city. In 1988, the Iraqi military recaptured the city and following the gulf war, this palace was built in honor of the soldiers who freed the city from Iranian control.

As with all palaces, it had a huge front door and all of the floors and walls were made of marble.

Here's a pic of Joe and me in the palace.

This was a type of throne in the main section of the palace. Did Saddam sit here? I doubt it, but you never know...

It was really interesting to see all of this. We only had about 30 mins to see the whole building so we got the fast tour. We didn't see the basement where all of the horrible actions took place like tortures, etc., not that I wanted to anyway. I also have a few pics of one of his wife's palace's across the lake. He evidentally wanted to kill her but couldn't b/c of her populartiy with the people and the wealth in her family, so he built her a palace to keep her away from him.

Anyway, it was an awesome yet chilling experience!