Ishtar Hotel
The Ishtar Hotel is a luxury hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, located on Firdos Square in the Karrada district. It stands 99 meters tall, making it one of the city’s tallest buildings. The hotel opened in 1982 as the Ishtar Sheraton Hotel & Casino and was designed by The Architects Collaborative, an American firm. It is owned by the Iraqi government.
Over the years the hotel has seen many changes. In 1990 the Sheraton contract ended, but the hotel kept using the Sheraton name for 22 more years. During the 1991 Gulf War, international journalists used the hotel to broadcast from Baghdad. After the 2003 invasion, it was briefly popular with foreigners, but occupancy fell later. A bomb attack in October 2005 damaged the hotel and it was closed for more than a year. A car bombing outside on January 25, 2010 killed 37 people.
The hotel was renovated in 2011, along with other major Baghdad hotels, in preparation for the 2012 Arab League summit, with work done by a Turkish company. In March 2013 the hotel was renamed Cristal Grand Ishtar Hotel. It is planned to reopen in 2025 as the River Rock Ishtar Baghdad Hotel, managed by a Turkish chain.
The Ishtar has two blocks: a tall L-shaped tower by the Tigris River and a second block with a large inner courtyard that serves as the entrance. It has about 310 rooms and more than 50 suites, plus conference halls, a swimming pool, a cafeteria, a spa and salons. The balconies feature wooden lattice screens to reduce sun glare. In the lobby, a statue of the goddess Ishtar sits in a fountain welcomed by visitors.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 20:14 (CET).