Hands Of The Victory Irak

Qādisīyah، and Hands of Victory in some Western sources, are a pair of triumphal arches in central Baghdad, Iraq. Each arch consists of a pair of hands holding crossed swords.The two arches mark the two entrances to Great Celebrations square and the parade-ground constructed to commemorate then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's declaration of victoryover Iran in the Iran-Iraq war (however, this never happened). The arches were opened to the public on August 8, 1989. It is one ofBaghdad's sights and monuments and near to TheMonument to the Unknown Soldier.
In 1986 (two years before the war's end) the government of Iraq began the construction of a festival and parade ground in Zawra Park, near theextensive presidential complex in the center of Baghdad. Known as Grand Festivities Square, it comprised a large parade ground, an extensive review pavilion, and the two arches. Theofficial name of the arches, the Swords of Qādisiyyah, is an allusion to the historical Battle of al-Qādisiyyah.
Iraq's leading sculptor, Adil Kamil, won the commission todesign and execute the construction of the arches, which were based on a concept sketch made by president Saddam Hussein. The design consists of a pair of massive hands emerging fromthe ground, each holding a 140 foot (43 m) long sword. A small flagpole rises from the point where the swords meet, at a point about 130 feet (40 m) above the ground. Kamil usedphotographs and plaster casts of Saddam's forearms to model for the design of the hands. When Kamil died in 1987, with the monument incomplete, his position was assumed byfellow artist Mohammed Ghani Hikmat. Ghani personally took an impression of one of Saddam's thumbs, and the resulting fingerprint was added to the mold for one of the arches' thumbs