this morning we are visiting one of the
most famous landmarks here in baghdad
which is the martyrs monument this is
absolutely beautiful spectacular massive
blue building that you see in the
distance here behind me the martyrs
monument is a must visit landmark for
anyone visiting baghdad now referred to
as al shaheed monument is a striking
landmark building designed by an iraqi
architect to help beautify baghdad it
consists of a stunning turquoise dome
split in two surrounded by an artificial
lake with a museum underneath
while the outside is a bright and
beautiful place once you enter the
museum underneath you are faced with
some of the horrors of iraqis pass the
first thing you'll notice is one million
names carved into the circular walls of
the museum to represent everyone who was
killed during the iran-iraq war
next you'll notice thousands of
photographs some in colour and some in
black and white photos of civilians
killed during the war with isis
there are also horrifying examples of
torture methods used by saddam hussein
and his army as well as profiles of
pilots and soldiers who refused to carry
out saddam hussein's orders and were
consequent and were consequently killed
you can see displays of their
possessions their last words photographs
prized possessions
our guide was able to tell us many
gruesome stories both personal and
well-known of missing persons rebellious
students
soldiers who stood up for what they
thought was right and entire villages
who were massacred
for no reason other than they followed a
religion different from the norm
so the photographs you see here behind
me are an entire village of people
over 1 000 people
all killed by isis
actually on this day 15th of august but
in 2014. so a lot of stuff in this
museum is super super recent
in 1980
uh this is the real one this is anna
who is
very related to mr
they establish
herself and
her peers from women
an organization to support like a woman
[Music]
so he said like the ngo that she started
in 1980
uh not only for shia muslim but also for
all iraqis if you find like some
unscarred ladies
they were like christian and also libera
liberal liberal people and
just to support women and she started to
once adam he knew that she's becoming a
big famous name a leader
he took her and also the group who
started this
and they
they throw them in
in a pool full of acid oh my god
more photos in here and these photos
were just found in the pockets of people
that were killed they don't know their
names they don't know who they are
sort of like lost people
it's a damn time
how people were just taken because they
say something or they write something
and for example in
in high school
students were 15 16 years old
they went to the classroom and they just
saw on the whiteboard there's
sentences right
no to saddam
okay
no one know which exact students who
wrote this
45 students were taken
and they're prisonered and they got
killed
while it can be difficult to visit
places like this i think as a tourist
visiting iraq
a visit to this monument is a must to
understand iraq today we must see what
this country and the people have gone
through and how hard they're working at
recovery slowly opening to tourism and
the world
when you see the unbelievable horrors
the iraqi people have gone through it
will help you appreciate their kindness
and unmatched hospitality even more
oh
my god why is everyone so nice here
tell me what just happened so
you guys are downstairs i was waiting
upstairs taking photos he came up to me
he's like water i said yeah he drove off
on his motorbike and just brought full
back and a chocolate bar and he won't
take any money before i take you guys on
a tour of modern baghdad i want to thank
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okay let's get back to exploring modern
baghdad
so guys we had a little uh rest in the
hotel for an hour and now we're actually
heading to a mall here in baghdad i just
want to show you guys what a mall looks
like here in iraq and um
it's also probably going to have aircon
i'm not sure and we're just going to go
chill out there for an hour maybe grab a
coffee and i'm just going to show you
guys what it's like and then this
afternoon we'll be doing more
sightseeing and we're going to and i'm
going to be going to a concert which is
pretty exciting
[Music]
this is amazing guys this is like a
legit mall here in baghdad we're
currently in the ground floor which is
um
kind of like more like a bazaar and it's
a replica of one of the streets we've
already been in baghdad which is already
street and you have like all the clothes
and all the copper and like cool phone
accessories the normal kind of stuff you
would see
[Music]
it's like a mini al rashid so this is
the bazaar in the basement of the mall
[Music]
where's doug
where's me
is that me that'll be me in a few days
that's you
how cute is this cafe
sitting area is so nice
[Music]
1930s
guys it's so funny for kids these little
dinosaurs that you can sit on
just to show you guys this is a shop
called de facto and they have like
actually like short clothes like shorts
and t-shirts and dresses
[Music]
some pretty cool views out the windows
here as well in these cool seats
[Music]
so this is kind of like the food course
there's like a chicken place a waffle
place a pizza place
you'll notice that none of them really
have names like that you would recognize
in the food place but they're all very
similar like there's a pizza place a
chicken place like kfc
there's a waffle step
pizza pizza it's pizza
malty are actually pretty cool for young
people so right here behind me here
you've got laser tag
like quasar and then you've got like
pool tables sticker tables and then over
here you've got like little trains in
roller coaster mini roller coaster
things like amusement rides for kids
and then these little dinosaur things
you can sit on it's pretty cool
how cool is this this is inside a
restaurant called hanging gardens of
babylon
and all these cute photo spots
i'm gonna check the outside
wow
look at this view
i have to say it's almost surreal being
in a
beautiful mall here in baghdad i don't
know what i expected i mean like every
country has malls but you don't always
know if they will look kind of the same
as back home and this one really does
you know top level is a food court
bottom level there's kind of stalls and
it's more like um
top level there's a food court there's
like four or five levels of shops
there's a really nice restaurant on the
top floor with the really cool views of
baghdad city and yeah it's just super
modern air con
most people are wearing masks and if
you're vaccinated you don't have to wear
a mask and
yeah there's a big car park and spanish
prices are
kind of the same as ireland i would say
maybe a little bit cheaper the cafe
prices and the close prices maybe some
of the shops are similar to like cheaper
shops in ireland but um there's really
cool views from the top level of this
mall babylon mall is the name in case
you want to come and as you can see here
pretty cool views we ended our day in a
cute cafe near our hotel chilling with
some new friends we met through the
iraqi travelers cafe a cool community in
baghdad to bring iraqi and international
travelers together in one community but
more about that in a future video