One of the largest palaces in Iraq, the Al Salam Palace sits in the Green Zone of Baghdad with large walls, watchtowers, and a lake built in the late Saddam Hussein era. The palace was distinguished by a unique architectural design, as it contains enormous columns and a very large dome. The palace was heavily bombed by planes during the war of invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the American forces, which led to the collapse of a number of the upper rooms and the burning of the dome of the palace and its surroundings.