Arabic letters intertwined and engraved on the walls of a dilapidated building in Mosul (the S and H), bear witness to what remains of the imposing Lake Palace of former president Saddam Hussein and which takes its name from an artificial lake that now does not exist it’s more. Saddam had a network of palaces and villas across the country, which he used as bases from which to operate “as Iraq went through wars and sieges,” said Saad al-Wazzan, a local activist. “These places have served to manage the state, to host some presidents and to rest,” he added. After the US-led invasion in 2003, some of the palaces in Mosul were used as bases for US forces, but the structures were all handed over to the Iraqi authorities in 2011. Some of the palaces are currently used as intelligence headquarters safety. The Tahaddi Palace and the Lake Palace have both been looted and bombed in the past 20 years, including by Islamic State militants. Twenty years after the US invasion that toppled the regime, the Palazzo del Lago still stands in ruins. But the Tahaddi Palace is under renovation and part of the building is already used by the University of Mosul. Another part will be used as a museum by the antiquities school, according to the university’s political science professor, Mahmoud Ezzo.
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