baghdazed

A lot of things changed in Baghdad--except for one thing has remained the exact time. Note the structure in both the first and final photographs of this set. Saddam's Mosque. Not a crane has moved since I left it in 2002. Saddam was building the world's largest mosque, and naming each of the 7 doors after his family, which is considered blasphemous in Islam as such honors tend to be named after the holy. The minarets were to be higher than those in Madina as a direct act of disrespect towards a city holy to all of the world's Muslims. After Saddam fell, construction ceased. And, like a 20-storey fly on the wall, the structure seems untouched as it looms over a poorer district of the city.