2 days ago
Baghdad's vaults: A tale of heat, trade, and hidden spaces
Shafaq News
The recent uncovering of vaults beneath Baghdad's al-Rasheed Street sparked a surge of online speculation—were these tunnels remnants of a buried city, a hidden world below the capital?
Historians quickly debunked the theory, identifying the structures as architectural features from the Abbasid and Ottoman periods; yet the public reaction revealed something deeper: Baghdad's uneasy disconnection from its layered urban history.
Vaults as Urban Memory
Speaking to Shafaq News, historian Moatasem al-Mufti explained that the area surrounding al-Rasheed once held a dense web of roofed markets and alleys linked to the Tigris, including the al-Saffareen, Haraj, and al-Saray markets, long before Ottoman governor Khaleel Pasha widened the street during World War I to facilitate troop movement—not to bury a secret city.
The uncovered spaces aren't mythical tunnels but functional chambers—designed for cooling, storage, and rest—crafted by generations of Baghdadis adapting to extreme heat through architecture rather than technology.
Abbasid-era vaults offered natural insulation and food preservation, while the Ottomans extended similar structures beneath shops and warehouses for trade, forming a subterranean economy long before modern utilities arrived.
Historian Adnan al-Moussawi underscored their practical origins, especially in riverside homes, stating, 'They were built to keep the heat out—long before Baghdad had electricity or air conditioning.'
Preserved or Erased?
Despite their historical value, Baghdad's vaults remain undocumented and largely unprotected; unlike Egypt's khanqahs or Syria's restored hammams, these underground spaces are often discovered by accident during construction—then quietly sealed again.
In 2023, excavation work along al-Imamain Street in Kadhimiya revealed corridors stretching from Imam Square to Abdul Mohsen al-Kadhimi Square, while similar findings beneath al-Mutanabbi Street exposed printing workshops that operated into the 1970s using rudimentary presses.
'These weren't secret bunkers,' explained academic researcher Mohammad Hareeb to our agency, 'they were active workspaces—integral to Baghdad's economic and cultural life, yet largely forgotten.'
Hareeb described the saradeeb of al-Mutanabbi, underground vaults and basements, as hidden extensions of the street's legacy, designed to shield materials from heat and time, calling them 'silent witnesses to a city that rarely looks down.'
