Saddam Hussein's palace will become a museum in Iraq

A former palace of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain will be turned into a museum this September more than 13 years after the invasion.


The large mansion in Basra, southern Iraq, will become the first museum to open in the war-torn country in several years after serving as a mess hall for the British army during the war, according toNational Geographic. The British pulled out from Basra in September 2007.

Those involved with the project say there will be at least 3,500 objects from Baghdad's Iraq Museum from different periods including ancient Sumer, Babylon and Assyria.

The project, which costs $3.5 million in total, was partly funded by a British charity, Friends of Basrah Museum. The charity garnered donations of $500,000, mainly from oil companies reportedly after the Basra government agreed to provide $3 million worth of funding. Despite this promise, the government has reportedly not yet provided its share of funding.

The British Museum offered curatorial support for free, the National Geographic reported.

The mansion in Basra, Iraq's second largest city, is known often as the home of Sinbad the Sailor. Today, it is an important trade centre.

Qahtan al-Abeed, director of the Basra section of the state board of antiquities and heritage in Iraq, told National Geographic that he wanted the museum to be more than just a place to display objects.

“We want a very modern museum that does more than display objects. We want to bring in people for all kinds of art and cultural activities, including training courses and professional meetings."

Mr Abeed said he suggested to Baghdad to "turn the palace over to us" after the British left.

The palace's former owner still haunts the place with his name still above the main door, carved in Arabic with the words: “Prince of Arabs."

And it is not just the palace that Mr Abeed wants to change. He is hoping to make Basra, founded in 636 AD and once a crucial port to Indian Ocean trade, a "heritage area" as well as seeking Unesco World Heritage site status.

“We want to make this a heritage area with hotels and restaurants and a heritage museum, but being sure that people still live here. We want to make this like Granada in Spain, but this is a 15-to 20-year project," he said.