360° Saddam's Red Security Prison | Sulaymaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan

360° video tour of the prison-turned-museum Amna Suraka. A short while after my first visit to the museum, I read a Vice article which echoes many of my thoughts about the place ( http://goo.gl/kfSBDB ): an essential, but difficult, experience. Make sure you stop by, if in Sulaymaniyah.

--------------------------------------------------------
Amna Suraka

If walls could speak, the Amna Suraka museum would tell tales of unimaginable horrors at the hands of Saddam Hussein's intelligence services, the Mukhabarat. The 17,000 square feet compound encloses several buildings that were once used by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath regime as offices, torturing chambers and cells. The first prisoners arrived in 1986 and were liberated in 1991, following a series of uprisings throughout the region – the vast majority of the prisoners were Kurds. In 2000 the haunting building was turned into a museum, a project spearheaded by Hero Talabani, PUK member and wife of former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.

The imposing buildings have been left exactly as they were following the violent uprising – a myriad of bulletholes and shattered windows speckle the fading red facade. The courtyard has been turned into a garden of roses and is now home to a display of Iraqi weapons left behind by the invading army. Tanks, mortars and artillery weapons line the sides of the garden.

(EN: http://goo.gl/in9ig5 )

--------------------------------------------------------

0:21 Central courtyard of the museum

0:42 Guard tower and small garden

1:00 Courtyard of tanks, mortars and artillery weapons captured from Saddam Hussein's army by the Peshmerga in 1991

1:24 Inside a captured military vehicle

1:45 Inside a captured tank

2:05 Atop of one of the largest captured tanks

2:30 A sculpture dedicated to victims of the torture prison

2:51 The bullet-ridden former prison administration building

3:32 A small, peaceful, trellised garden tunnel next to the tanks

4:05 Some Peshmerga soldiers putting the world to rights

--------------------------------------------------------

Camera: Ricoh Theta S ( https://goo.gl/OQcg4A )

Thanks for watching!

--------------------------------------------------------

How to view the 360° video:

Desktop using Google Chrome:
Use your mouse or trackpad to change your view while the video plays.

YouTube app on mobile:
Move your device around to look at all angles while the video plays

Google Cardboard:
Load the video in the YouTube app and tap on the cardboard icon when the video starts to play. Insert your phone in cardboard and enjoy.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6239930?hl=en-GB

More info here: https://goo.gl/GGwWze