Lake Habbaniyah
Halfway between Ramadi and Fallujah, the Euphrates spills into a wide turquoise lake set in the middle of the desert — Lake Habbaniyah. Its calm waters once served an exotic purpose: in the late 1930s the great flying boats of Imperial Airways alighted here on the long route from Britain to India, and on its shore the Royal Air Force built the vast Habbaniya base, famously besieged and held during the 1941 Anglo-Iraqi War.
The lake's golden age came in 1981, when the Habbaniyah Tourist Village opened along the water — a resort built to look like a French seaside town, with hundreds of bright chalets, 300 hotel rooms and 500 bungalows. Through the 1980s it was the most glamorous holiday spot in Iraq, drawing newlyweds, celebrities and even Saddam Hussein, who is remembered as keeping a private white villa on the grounds; in 1989 it was crowned the best holiday resort in the Middle East.
The decades since have been harder. After 2003 the resort faded, and for a time it sheltered tens of thousands of families displaced by war. Today drought and upstream dams are draining the lake itself, which by 2023 held only a fraction of its former water. Yet Iraqis still come to the shore for the view that has drawn them for generations: a sheet of blue where the desert least expects it.
3 stops to discover
- 1
Iraq's Holiday Lake
Lake Habbaniyah grew into Iraq's best-known holiday resort, its beaches, chalets and clear water drawing families from across the country through the 1970s and 80s. Even today it remains the great escape of Anbar, a stretch of blue in the desert west of Ramadi.
- 2
The Flying-Boat Stop
Lake Habbaniyah is a large artificial reservoir set midway between Ramadi and Fallujah, fed by the Euphrates. In the late 1930s and 1940s it served as a refuelling stop and overnight hotel for Imperial Airways flying boats, the great seaplanes that carried passengers on the long-haul route between Britain and India.
- 3
A Day by the Water
The shore of Habbaniyah is made for slow days: swimming in the warm shallows, boating out onto the lake, and grilling fish as the sun goes down over the water. It is where Anbar comes to cool off and unwind.
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