Built somewhere around 1980 supposedly for a large international (arms) fair in Baghdad. It may have started out as a 5 star Meridien hotel (owned by Air France) called Palestine. Ten years later when we UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission on Iraq) were allocated the hotel it had taken on the same dusty, drab demeanour as the much of the rest of the capital. Upkeep and maintenance were things forced upon men in blue coveralls who used what they had (which was not much) to bandaid problems. The nightly charge for us foreign visitors were 150 USD for something that had a value of perhaps 30 dollars. It was thereby a hard currency cash cow for the Iraqi government. The balcony on one of the higher floors opened up to a view of the Tigris river and the presidential and government buildings across the river.
View towards Abu Nawas street and Tigris river. Across the slow flowing waterway government buildings including the Presidential palace and Parliament building.
Room with retro feel.
It is not home but where I stayed. Was it bugged, it was easiest to take that for granted.
Baghdad after dark.
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