Ishtar Hotel

Ishtar Hotel
Ishtar Hotel
General information
Location	Baghdad, Iraq
Opening	1982

The Ishtar Hotel is a hotel in Baghdad, Iraq located on Firdos Square. At 99 meters tall, it is the tallest building in Baghdad and the tallest structure in Iraq after the Baghdad Tower.

History[]

Named after the ancient goddess Ishtar, the hotel opened in 1982 as the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel & Casino (Arabic, فندق شيراتون عشتار). It was one of the most popular western-run hotels in Baghdad. When the Gulf War began in 1991, the Sheraton Hotels severed their management contract with the Iraqi government, which built the property. The hotel continued to use the Sheraton name without permission for the following 22 years.^[1]

While the hotel was briefly popular with foreign journalists and contractors after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, its occupancy level soon dropped sharply. The hotel, an obvious and imposing target, was periodically hit with mortar or rocket fire during the early years of the post-Saddam era. The structure was seriously damaged during a bomb attack in October 2005 and was closed for more than a year afterward. Thirty-seven were killed in a car bomb attack outside of the hotel on January 25, 2010.

This hotel was renovated in 2011 along with five other of the biggest hotels in Baghdad in preparation campaign for Arab summit. Renovation was done by a Turkish Company and have improved the interior and leisure facilities.^{[citation needed]} The hotel was renamed Cristal Grand Ishtar Hotel in March 2013.^[2]

During Arab summit in 2012 many officials from different countries accommodated in this hotel along with press and journalists. Now many of conferences and workshops, internally or internationally, are organized in this hotel.^{[citation needed]}

The lobby features a marble statue of Isthar, standing on a fountain in the shape of the Star of Ishtar and the Star of Shamash.