The Basrah Museum () is a museum in the

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

i city of

Basra Basra () is a port city in Iraq, southern Iraq. It is the capital of the eponymous Basra Governorate, as well as the List of largest cities of Iraq, third largest city in Iraq overall, behind Baghdad and Mosul. Located near the Iran–Iraq bor ...

, housed in a former palace of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

. Its collection is related to

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

n civilisations, as well as the history of the city itself. Basrah Museum opened its doors to the public in March 2019. The Director of the Basrah Antiquities & Heritage is Qahtan Al Abeed, who has managed the project from the start with the cooperation of the State Board of Antiquities & Heritage and the Ministry of Culture and with support from the UK Friends of Basrah Museum.

History

The museum was closed in 1991, when it was among nine museums looted by mobs opposed to Saddam Hussein at the close of the first Gulf War. After the 2003 allied invasion of Iraq, the palace grounds were occupied by the British Army. In 2008, the Iraqi Army and National Police (now Federal police), along the United States Army took over the area and used it as a base of operations. During 2008, Iraqi and U.S. forces executed numerous combat operations from this base to defeat the Mahdi Army and restore peace and order to Basra. The Basrah Museum opened its first Gallery of the Museum in September 2016. The Friends of Basrah Museum is the organisation that raised the funds for the first gallery's installation through generous corporate and individual donations. FOBM received a UK Cultural Protection Fund PFref> Grant award in December 2016, managed by the British Council in partnership with the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to support the completion of the new Basrah Museum. The London-based

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

was also one of the Western organisations which supported the Basrah Museum at the start of the project in 2010. The museum officially opened its doors to the public in March 2019 with three new galleries: Babylon, Sumer and Assyrian. With the assistance of the Iraq Museum and the Basrah Museum thousands of artefacts dating back as far as BCE 6,000 are back on display in the southern province. These include artefacts from the original museum looted in 1991 that are now on display in the Basrah Gallery. The museum now has labels in English and Arabic throughout all four galleries, worked on by Qahtan Alabeed and others with assistance from the Friends of Basrah Museum and The British Institute for the Study of Iraq for the English language labels.

References

External links

Basra Museum project briefing
(British Museum) Museums in Iraq Buildings and structures in Basra {{iraq-geo-stub