Being a Tourist in the IZ

Took some time out to visit two of the bigger "tourist attractions" in the IZ: The Crossed Swords and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The Crossed Swords stand at the both ends of Saddam's old parade route in Baghdad. Military parades used to roll under them while Saddam and his crew watched on. They are huge! I think the swords themselves probably go 100 feet in the air. At the base of the "arm" are piles of helmets that apparently were taken from dead soldiers of the Iraq-Iran War.

The neat thing is that you can actually go inside of one of the "arms" and climb to the top of the "hand". In order to do this you have to first crawl down into the base of the arm (you can see me re-emerging) and then climb a series of very old wobbly ladders. Once you get to the top you need to manuever yourself on to a old chair and then you can stick your head out and look at the parade field below. You can barely make out my face and hand in the photo.

After that we walked over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Its an easier climb to the top of this monument and it gives a good view of the city. I wanted a picture of me next to this big anchor. It seemed out of place but maybe its from one of Saddam's yachts.