MEMORIALS

Baghdad Monuments: The Shaheed Monument

Type: Physical memorial
Location: Baghdad
Country: Iraq

Added: 7/28/2009
Updated: 3/29/2014 12:50:50 PM

The Martyr’s Memorial or Al-Shaheed Monument in Baghdad is one of the enormous monuments that were built by Saddam Hussein to commemorate Iraq’s fallen soldiers in the Iran-Iraq War. It was designed by Muhammad at-Turki and opened in 1983.


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This image, published by the US Navy, is in the public domain.

Baghdad, Iraq (Nov. 30, 2003) – An HH-60H helicopter assigned to the “Firehawks” of Helicopter Combat Search and Rescue Squadron/Special Warfare Support Special Squadron Five (HCS-5) flies over the Martyr’s Memorial in Baghdad while returning from a combat mission. HCS-5 is deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Aviation Electrician’s Mate 1st Class Rex Sackett. Source: www.navy.mil


To view more images please visit the following sites

ArchNet has an excellent series of images of the Martyr’s Monument at their web site but not much information about the monuments history and design.



This article from for Louisville Peace Action Community also features some detailed images from the Memorial. Click links to see full size images.

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Globalsecurity.com has more information on this monument: "The Shaheed Monument, opened in 1983, commemorates Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war. Muhammad at-Turki’s elegant martyr’s monument is a circular platform 190 meters in diameter, that sits in the middle of a huge artificial lake. It features an enormous turquoise tiled dome, resembling those topping Baghdad’s mosques. The dome is split down the middle, with the two halves offset, and the walls of the dome sheltering an eternal flame. A national memorial in honour of Iraqi war heroes on a site comprising green areas, a children’s playground, car parks, walkways and bridges, and a lake. Amid the lake is an island of two circular platforms - one above the other - on which the monument is set. The monument is a 40m shell split in two and slided to form an inverted and disjoined S in plan. Inside one of the dome shells is a circular water pool that cascades its contents to the courtyard below. The structure built on two levels under the platform comprises: a museum, a library, a cafeteria, lecture hall, exhibition gallery and support facilities. The shells are constructed of a galvanised steel frame with glazed ceramic tile cladding pre-cast in carbon fiber reinforced concrete".

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POSTED BY JON BRUNBERG ON 7/28/2009