Firdos Square (Arabic: ساحة الفردوس‎‎; transliterated: Sahat al-Firdaus) is a public open space in Baghdad, Iraq. It is named after the Persian word Firdows, which literally means "paradise". The 14th of Ramadan Mosque and two of the best-known hotels in Baghdad, the Palestine Hotel and the Sheraton Ishtar, are located on the square. The roundabout in the center of Firdos Square has been the site of several monuments beginning with the completion of the monumental arch The Unknown Soldier in 1959. It was subsequently replaced by the statue of Saddam Hussein that was torn down by U.S. coalition forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. A green, abstract sculpture by Bassem Hamad al-Dawiri was commissioned to replace the Saddam statue. In 2009, the architect of the Monument to the Unknown