Basra Museum struggles to keep Iraq's heritage at home
The Basra Museum displays around 2,200 objects from the Sumerian, Babylonian, Assyrian and Hellenistic eras — 100 of which were reportedly looted and returned to Iraq from Jordan and the United States.
Under a pink and turquoise ceiling and wooden panels with Arabic calligraphy carvings, galleries filled with objects dating back millennia are bringing new life to what was once Saddam Hussein’s residence in Basra.
The former dictator’s palace, overlooking the Shatt al-Arab River, now houses the Basra Museum.
Post-2003, the grand building became a base for British soldiers, exposing it to the ire — and mortar shells — of militias fighting the troops in the southern oil hub.
It later fell into the hands of Basra’s authorities, but a local archaeologist was determined that the city should have a museum. The old one was looted in the first Gulf War — nearly three decades ago — and had been shut ever since.
