Perfume Palace

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Today I was supposed to fly back to Al Asad. When I emerged from my tent I was greeted with a sandstorm. I went to the military passenger terminal and learned that my confirmed flight had been cancelled and now I would need to try to get a standby flight when I weather cleared. I chose to hope on the bus system and explore Baghdad, sandy or not. I rode over to Camp Slayer to see Saddam’s Perfume Palace. Saddam had palaces built all over Iraq. In Baghdad he built the Perfume Palace for his concubines. I really could not find much else about it but it is pretty spectacular. The whole Slayer compound is filled with Iraqi construction and bombed out buildings. It is cool to see a palace that had a JDAM dropped into it. The JDAM penetrates the roof and guts the inside leaving a shell of outer wall on the outside with total destruction on the inside. I was thoroughly dusty after walking around for a few hours but got some great pictures making it worth the trip. I will try to get out tomorrow.

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