Baghdad Saturday

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  Baghdad, Iraq
Saturday, November 26, 2011

The best part about being posted to a US Embassy overseas is the contact with local people and community. There is so much fresh culture outside the US.  That's why the Baghdad embassy sucks.  There is no connection with Iraq. 

It’s not the occasional mortar round that lands in the compound bouncing off the concrete structures (we can track those, locate the source within a few feet, go kick someone’s butt if they’re still there or speeding away nearby), not the artificial food and services provided by Kellogg Brown and Root, costing Americans several 100 million dollars a year (they even deliver t-shirts for the Thanksgiving Turkey Day run), and not the medium security prophylactic life style that we imposed on ourselves in the name of safety that makes this place such a loser.  It’s the lack of contact with the Iraq diversity that is teeming outside the fortified walls.

Baghdad’s magnificent National Museum, Iraq’s 5000 years of art and culture, and architecture that attracted Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe are all within walking distance of the embassy, and rigidly off limits.

Just one obvious site that begs for a visit, one that we can actually see from our apartment, is the Babylon Hotel.  It is located across the Tigris River, near Baghdad University, 920 meters from our apartment according to Google Earth, about 870 meters out of reach. 

It was built in the 1980’s by the Indian luxury Hotel chain Oberoi, a 40 million dollar development.  It quickly became a vibrant social point, offering Middle East hospitality on the banks of the Tigris in the midst of what was then Saddam’s early Baghdad, before the Iran War that wrecked the country.

Babylon,of course, is where western civilization began 4000 years ago, about 80 miles South of Baghdad.  It was the City of Hammurabi and Nebuchadnezzar, known by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans as a legend of wealth, power, and beauty.

The Babylon Hotel aspired to re-create that luxury in its own way, without the harem and slaves presumably, but certainly a place where no comfort was missing. It is a Ziggurat, a stepped pyramid, reflecting its Mesopotamian connection.

The hotel was built along with dozens of other commercial and public projects in anticipation of a 1983 non-aligned nation summit, fully intending to demonstrate Iraq’s status as an emerging world leader and to "restore some of the Abbasid-era glory of the city," an ambitious target after 1000 years, but you have to give them credit.

The conference was cancelled because the Iran-Iraq War escalated quickly with Iranian missiles raining on Baghdad.  The hotel opened and endured as a local landmark.  Contemporary accounts are aglow with superlatives.  It was one of 6 hotels that were the face of Baghdad for the years when tourists could actually visit and explore this rich civilization. 

The Babylon was an important local venue for Iraq politics, hosting national and international conferences by such groups as the Iraq Unity Alliance (IUA), a credible effort to harmonize Iraq’s religious and political interests, the National Foundation Congress, a rare attempt to overcome sectarianism, and International Women’s Day, a breakthrough in gender awareness for the Middle East.

After Saddam was overthrown in 2003, Baghdad and the Babylon Hotel spiraled into final tragedy.  The hotel remained open, but with Oberoi long gone, it became a flea bag, prompting many colorful travel reviews:

-       AC barely works, when it works at all.
-       place was heavily looted after the war, and still has not been fixed.
-       food is awful, bring some Cipro with you.
-       only slightly better than an abandoned building.
-       locals call it "Canine Corner" for all the wild stray dogs … Some even live in the hotel.
-       you must be able to put up with flies.
-       you must go to the "urinehut" outside in the back of the hotel.
-       The restaurant only serves cold kidney beans, not bad if you heap in some sugar.
-       people you see all have black teeth from bean staining.
-       Don't go out after dark, either.

The week that Saddam’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali", for his use of nerve gas to settle political disputes, was sentenced to death in January 2010, three suicide car bombs struck downtown Baghdad hotels, including the Babylon.  36 people were killed in the explosions; 9 at the Babylon.

The hotel eventually closed, abandoned to post war squatters. 

There was a resurgence of interest in the hotel in 2009 when Bagdad was scheduled to host the Arab summit last June.  Iraq again poured money into sprucing up the city, reported to be in the range of $250 million.  The Babylon Hotel was one of the beneficiaries.  An ambitious renovation was underway when this Summit, too, was called off.  Too many mortar rounds, too many Roadside bombs, too much Arab Spring.  Maybe next year.  The renovation came to a halt.

We have met several locals who insist that the hotel is open.  They are being hopeful that Baghdad is a normal city.  But there is no sign of life at the hotel, no activity along the river during the day, and no lights at night.  Either way, it’s a Baghdad attraction, worth a visit.

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Hotel 5	Babylon Hotel 4	Babylon Hotel 5	Babylon Hotel 6
Babylon Hotel 7	Babylon Hotel 8	Babylon Hotel 9	Babylon Hotel 10
Babylon Hotel 11	Babylon Hotel 12	Hotel 14	Hotel 15

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