Habbaniya holiday village
The Habbaniya Holiday Village (mostly Arabic المدينة السياحية في الحبانية al-madīna as-siyāḥīya fī l-Habbānīya ) was an Iraqi tourism resort and a prestigeobject ofthe Iraqi Baath regime. According to the then tourism authority, it was the largest holiday development in the Middle East in 1982. The Habbaniya holiday village was about 84 km west of Baghdad, a little off the road from al-Fallujah to Ramadi on Lake Habbaniya and near al-Habbaniyya .
History and equipment
Construction of the holiday village began in 1976. It was opened in 1979. The holiday village covered an area of approx. 1 km² and protruded a few hundred meters into the lake. The complex included a six-story hotel with 600 beds, several restaurants and bars, swimming pools, and a pinball room on each floor. There was a nightclub upstairs. The complex also included 500 bungalows. Asharq al-Awsat put the number of beds at 300 and the number of bungalows at 528.
For leisure activities there were playgrounds, a “youth club”, rowing and sailing club, tennis courts, a riding arena, volleyball, archery and mini golf facilities and a marina. According to a contemporary travel guide from the state tourism authority, the facility operated "the settlement's own television".
Gulf War and today's situation
Due to the difficult political situation, according to the later director of the Hamid ad-Dulaimi facility, the tourism business was closed in 1990. During the Second Gulf War , the area was occupied by the US armed forces, who opened an air force base nearby. The region was the scene of fierce fighting between US forces and the insurgents. After the withdrawal of the US armed forces, the holiday village was repaired by a Turkish company from 2009 and then used again for tourism and recreation. Despite the falling water level of Lake Habbaniyya, around 5000 visitors a week visited the facility in 2012. Due to the massive internal displacement as a result of the conquests by the Islamic State , the complex has become a refugee camp . In mid-2015, 24,000 refugees from the al-Anbar region were living in a precarious supply situation in the former luxury complex . The refugee camp is called Muchayyam al-madīna as-siyāḥīya fī'l-Habbānīya ("Refugee Camp of the Holiday Village in al-Habbaniya").
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Asharq al-Awsat of June 21, 2012 (Arabic)
literature
- State Organization For Tourism: Iraq Travel Guide. Belgrade 1982, pp. 90-93
Coordinates: 33 ° 15 ' N , 43 ° 34' E