SARSING, Kurdistan Region – Atop a mountain overlooking the village of Sarsing sits the once lavish palace of the last king of Iraq, King Faisal II, abandoned in the heart of the Gara Mountains.

Faisal II inherited the throne at the tender age of four when his father, King Ghazi – the only son of Iraq’s first King Faisal – died in a car accident in Baghdad in 1939.

It is said that the young king used to spend summers at the palace with his guardian and uncle, Abd al-Elah, prior to assuming power at the age of 18.

Further tragedy befell the doomed dynasty when Faisal II was brutally murdered alongside several members of his family at his Baghdad Palace in 1958. He was just 23 years old. 

The 1958 Iraqi coup d’état – also known as the July 14 Revolution – brought an end to the thirty-seven-year reign of the British-installed Hashemites. 

The locals of Sarsing, a beautiful ancient Assyrian village 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of Duhok, say Saddam Hussein also spent time in the palace after assuming control of Iraq in 1979.

It is said the Baathist leader had an obscure obsession with the young king and his violent death. 

Following Saddam’s own demise, locals say the palace briefly became a hospital during the mid-2000s.

Renovations began at the site in 2013, but came to an abrupt halt with the onset of the financial crisis and the worsening security situation in 2014. Locals speculate it could someday become a museum to its ill-fated former occupants. 

The shell of the once immaculate structure is still standing, a wooden swing hanging from the bow of a tree in its grounds. Construction materials are still stacked outside, indicating its owner will return and revive its faded grandeur. 

Until then, its gutted interior hosts none but the ghosts of another Iraq. 

Photos: A.C. Robinson / Rudaw