Baghdad's Historical Hotels Coming Back to Life

24 November 26, 2017 Travel www.thearabweekly.com Agenda Beirut: Through December 28 Events associated with Sursock Museum Late Nights occur noon-9pm each Thursday at the Sursock Museum. The events include exhibitions, collection displays, late-night talks, performances and screenings. Dubai: Through December 31 “La Perle” features 65 artists performing amazing stunts and aerial antics above an on-stage pool filled with 2.7 million litres of water in a state-of-the-art, custom-built theatre. The show takes place Royal Tulip Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s Green Zone. (Lizzie Porter) at Al Habtoor City. Cairo: November 21-30 The Cairo International Film Baghdad’s historical Festival, established in 1976, will have its 39th edition at the Opera House over ten days. The programme includes world cinema projections, seminars, workshops, debates hotels coming back to life and tributes. Algiers: Lizzie Porter gar lounge, brown leather sofas sit December 1-8 alongside an upright piano with fake roses adorning the tables. The eighth Algiers Interna- Baghdad The menu includes kebabs and tional Film Festival takes place mezze, although American tastes in El Mouggar Theatre and he entrance to Al- are clearly a priority. Cheesecake, the Cinematheque of Algiers. Rasheed Hotel in Bagh- doughnuts and brownies are all on Documentaries and fiction dad’s Green Zone is the menu for 6,000 Iraqi dinars ($5) films are scheduled in an event via a narrow opening each. that brings together independ- in a blast wall on the The hotel was originally con- ent movie producers from all westT bank of the Tigris. Tangles of ceived in the 1970s as a five-star es- over the world. barbed wire line the concrete block tablishment built on Iraq’s oil mon- corridor through which guests have ey. It was for a long time one of the Egypt: to pass before they descend into a plushest buildings in the country. December 1-31 subway-like tunnel. Under Saddam’s rule, though, One emerges beside the tower- spy cameras and microphones were The Sphinx Festival explores ing hotel building, which served as installed in guest room televisions and promotes the cultural arts a hub for foreign correspondents and staff constantly monitored of Egypt. It includes music, covering Iraq’s wars in the 1990s guests. dance and poetry perfor- and early 2000s. Journalists used the hotel as mances, traditional ethnic Wide green gardens edged by a base during the first Gulf War. costumes, workshops and manicured hedges open out on one In 1991 CNN secured some of the Egyptian dance classes. The side, with the hotel’s conspicuous conflict’s most compelling footage festival takes place at various Royal Tulip branding of the chain from Al-Rasheed’s ninth floor. With venues, including the ancient running it now embellishing the the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, for- Abusir Sun Temple, Cairo and grey and brown monolith. eign journalists again flocked to the the Egyptian oasis. hotel. Tomas Harenstam, a former Dubai: The Cristal Grand Middle East correspondent for the December 6-13 Ishtar hotel’s Swedish News Agency (TT), only stayed at the Al-Rasheed once, in reinvention hasn’t Dubai International Film Festi- January 2003, during the run-up to val is a celebration of Arab and been quite to the the US invasion. But he has vivid international cinema. In its same standards as memories of the place. 14th edition, the festival will “I had heard of the infamous the Al-Rasheed. showcase more than 120 films George Bush mosaic, but actu- from Hollywood, Bollywood The hotel was heavily damaged ally seeing it — and walking on The 17 of Ramadan Mosque seen from Al-Rasheed Hotel in and elsewhere. A parallel pro- during the US invasion in 2003. it — was quite surreal. The building Baghdad’s Green Zone. (Lizzie Porter) gramme will include seminars, Today it has been replaced with an itself was huge, dimly lit and quite debates and meetings. airport-style building. empty, I remember walking alone would always sit there, alone, read- a bomb attack in 2005, which also During Saddam Hussein’s era, through marble hallways lined with ing newspapers. I assumed they struck the neighbouring Palestine Tunis: the lobby floor was decorated with souvenir shops that hadn’t been were government watchers. I also hotel, an equally large, off-brown December 8-16 the mosaic face of former US Presi- open for a very long time,” Haren- assumed the room was bugged.” monolith. dent George H.W. Bush on which all stam recalls. After just a few nights, Haren- The hotel’s reinvention hasn’t Carthage Theatre Days is an guests had to step to enter the hotel “In the cavernous lobby, there stam moved out of al-Rasheed into been quite to the same standards annual festival that show- — a great insult in Arab culture. was a lounge area with sofas and a smaller hotel downtown, but he as the Al-Rasheed. Like all large ho- cases plays from the Maghreb, In the Shehrayar Cafe and ci- armchairs. Men with serious faces kept going back to the Al-Rasheed tels in the city, it is surrounded by a Africa, the Middle East and almost daily, as the hotel’s shisha blast wall and guests must undergo Europe. In its 19th edition, the lounge was the only place where he a body search before entering. festival takes place in Tunis could access the internet. A damp whiff pervades the air; and other parts of Tunisia. The hotel joined the Golden Tulip the red carpet is dirty and dusty, chain — under its luxury Royal Tulip and the rooms were not properly Abu Dhabi: brand — in 2014. Today, it might be serviced before our stay. Mugs were December 14-27 worthy of five stars again. At about cracked and the sink was lined with $320 per room per night, guests’ scum. Al Dhafra Festival is a major high expectations are understand- The lift has open glass sides, re- regional and international able. vealing — through quite a lot of event inspired by the Emirati The hotel’s website promises “a grime — a magnificent panorama of authentic Bedouin spirit. It personal touch in Iraqi and inter- Baghdad and the turquoise dome of features more than a dozen national hospitality,” a “warm and the 17 of Ramadan Mosque. heritage activities and com- sophisticated atmosphere” and “all The bar, a mysterious, pseudo- petitions, including a camel the facilities required by a discern- Parisian affair entered through dark beauty contest, with a total ing business and leisure traveller.” curtains, is empty. The faded nature prize value of more than $12.8 The Al-Rasheed is not alone of the grandeur is quite striking. million. among Baghdad’s hotels with sto- Baghdad’s heritage hotels reflect ried history. the city’s wider stories of turbu- The Cristal Grand Ishtar hotel lence, resilience and persistence. We welcome submissions of also has a colourful past. Formerly You probably don’t need to take calendar items related to a Sheraton, it is located aside Firdos home an Operation Inherent Re- cultural events of interest to Square. A large statue of Saddam solve T-shirt to prove it. travellers in the Middle East used to stand there until it was top- and North Africa. pled by US troops and Iraqis in early Lizzie Porter is a Beirut-based Please send tips to: Swimming pools at the Royal Tulip Al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s 2003. freelance journalist focusing [email protected] Green Zone. (Tripadvisor) The hotel was badly damaged in on the Middle East..

Load more