Al-Shaheed Monument
Ismail Fatah al-Turk + Saman Kamal · Baghdad, Iraq · 1983
Al-Shaheed Monument is centered on a vast turquoise split dome that opens around an eternal flame and underground museum. Artist Ismail Fatah al-Turk and architect Saman Kamal combined monumental geometry, landscape and symbolic circulation to create a memorial to Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran–Iraq War. The dome’s two halves rise from a circular platform surrounded by water, producing a powerful image visible from a distance while drawing visitors downward into more intimate commemorative spaces. Completed in 1983, it is among Baghdad’s most significant late-modern public monuments.