The Babylon Rotana Baghdad Hotel is a 284-room hotel on the banks of the
Tigris River, in the
Al-Jadriya district of
Baghdad,
Iraq.
History
The hotel's architecture is a
Ziggurat, in the form of a terraced
step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. It was designed by Slovenian architect
Edvard Ravnikar and was originally intended to be built as a beach resort at
Budva in
Montenegro, in
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
When that project fell through, the plans were re-used and slightly adjusted for the new site in Baghdad.
[https://abe.revues.org/924]
The hotel originally opened in 1982 as the Babylon Oberoi Hotel, managed by
Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.
The interiors were designed by Indian architect Sunita Kohli. Oberoi severed their connection with the hotel due to the 1991
Gulf War. On January 25, 2010, the Babylon Hotel was the site of a car bomb attack. The hotel joined the
Warwick Hotels and Resorts
Warwick Hotels and Resorts (WHR) (formerly Warwick International Hotels) is a global hospitality company. As of January 2023, WHR encompasses over 40 hotels
The group of hotels, known as ''The Collection'', consists of owned and managed, managed ...
chain in October 2014 as the Babylon Warwick Hotel. On May 29, 2015, it was hit by another deadly car bomb attack. On January 9, 2019, the hotel ended its contract with Warwick Hotels and Resorts, signed a contract with
Rotana Hotels on January 20, 2019. The hotel was renamed Babylon Rotana Baghdad Hotel on February 1, 2019.
References
External links
Babylon Rotana Baghdad Hotel official website
Vladimir Kulić, "Building the Non-Aligned Babel: Babylon Hotel in Baghdad and Mobile Design in the Global Cold War" ''Architecture Beyond Europe (Abe) Journal'', 6/2014 Dossier: Socialist Networks
Buildings and structures in Baghdad
Hotels in Iraq
Hotels established in 1982
Hotel buildings completed in 1982
Ziggurat style modern architecture
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