BAGHDAD -

Whoever visits and tours the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and in the Celebration Square area next to Al-Karkh, a high tower tops a huge clock with 4 faces that rests on an octagonal base that contains a museum.

The idea of ​​the tower and clock dates back to 1986 when the Presidential Office put forward a competition to design the central Baghdad clock. After the designs were presented to the late President Saddam Hussein, the design submitted by the architect Muhammad Diaa Al-Barrak and his wife Nasreen Al-Qaisi won, and work on the project began in 1989.

About the Baghdad clock and its design and all the details that accompanied the implementation of the project, the architect of the project, Diaa Al-Barrak, spoke to Al-Jazeera Net, saying that at the request of the President of the Republic at the time, he commissioned the National Center for Engineering and Architectural Consultations to organize a competition to design a museum and a monument for the Baghdad Clock "in memory of the martyrs of the Iraq-Iran war."

Al-Barrak clarified that the design requirements submitted by the presidency were a museum in which gifts presented to the president are displayed, comprising 7 exhibition halls with their annexes such as lecture halls, offices, hospitality halls, and others.

The clock tower in Baghdad dates back to the end of the eighties of the last century (communication sites)

clock tower

Regarding the design of the halls, Al-Barrak explained that he thought that the shape of the building should be octagonal in order to stabilize this configuration from an engineering point of view, and it also allows the shortest central movement between the halls and the rest of the building’s contents. The center is a horizontal and vertical axis.

He added that the design works on moving to the basement floor through a central space in which there are complementary project corridors of offices, lecture halls and stores, and moving to the upper floor through the same space where the reception halls for senior guests are located, and this floor forms the base of the clock tower, preserving the The octagonal symmetry with its glass transparency and a three-dimensional eight-dimensional composition, forming a sparkling jewel in the sky of Baghdad on it 4 hours in different directions, and its hands were straight Arab swords.

Al-Barrak continues his speech: To confirm the symbolism of time, the time had to be transferred from the tower’s external clocks to the inside of the building, where on both sides of the entrance there are two overlapping murals with a display that embodies the image and sound of Baghdad since its founding.

Mohammed Fadel Al-Barrak won his design to complete the project (Al-Jazeera)

After entering the building - according to Al-Barrak - the visitor finds himself in the middle of the museum halls, overlooking a small lake containing a simulated laser clock, and looking up from the inner space of the clock tower to the top.

A huge pendulum was designed hanging from the top of the tower to the level of the lake, both of which coincide with the timing of the clock at the top of the tower, which is linked to the world time, and Iraq adopts an official time for all government departments, institutions, airports, radio and television stations.

And about the implementation of the project and the rest of the relevant details, the director of the Baghdad Clock project, Ali Hussein Khudair - told Al Jazeera Net - saying that the work was carried out with an executive contract between Al-Faw and the Engineering Projects Department after a competition between several government companies with a two-year implementation period, and work began in April 1989 .

And the project was wanted to be an architectural masterpiece that shows the development that occurred over a decade, and in its completion, high-quality materials were used at the international level, so a contract was made to purchase a 4-faceted watch with an area of ​​16 square meters for each face with a pendulum in the middle of the building with a length of 45 meters that embraces in Its end is gold-plated guns from a Swiss company with wall clocks showing the time in all capitals of the world.

Khudair: I want the project to be an architectural masterpiece that shows the development that took place over a decade (Al Jazeera)

Khodeir explained that 7,000 square meters of Italian marble was purchased for the floors, with the same amount of granite stone to cover the exterior facades of the building, and the aluminum sections of the doors, windows, and glass of the tower, which seem to be connected from top to bottom without partitions, were prepared.

He continues his talk that after all the required materials were about to arrive, work began to complete the project before the contractual period, but the work stopped after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and then the Gulf War in 1991 and the economic blockade imposed on the country, which disrupted the arrival of the remaining materials to complete the project The presidency issued a decision to complete the project with local materials, and it was completed in mid-1993.

In 1994, the project, which includes the clock tower and the "Victory Museum", was opened.

The museum includes gifts presented to President (at the time) Saddam from different parts of the world, including swords and daggers of gold inlaid with precious stones and diamonds, watches and various antiques.

In 2003, when the American forces invaded Baghdad, the tower and the museum were bombed, which led to the destruction of parts of it, and the museum's contents were looted.

The American forces kept some of the holdings that were present and later returned them to the Iraqi authorities, who reconstructed the tower and its base.