Everywhere, there were lions. Lions on limestone statues, on bronze carvings, enormous on the tall iron gates, and under foot embedded in mosaic marble.
The lion was the symbol that Saddam adopted for himself, the self-appointed king of the jungle. And he plastered them all over his river palace in Basra, taken by Royal Marine commandos at first light yesterday morning.
With their faces still blacked out from the camouflage cream of the assault, the commandos stared bleary-eyed at the decadent opulence in front of them exuding from every single corner. Stepping through the 30 feet tall ornate iron gates of Saddam's southern retreat was like stepping into a different world.
We had spent the last 19 days fighting our way north through almost derelict towns and villages littered by rotting piles of waste and sewage, where people appeared to survive on nothing.
Even just the other side of the palace's 20 feet high walls, Basra residents dressed in pathetically loose-fitting clothes stared at the steady stream of commandos in amazement as they drove through the tall ornate iron gates where they had never dared to tread. The Basra palace sits on the south-western tip of the city right on the banks of the Shatt-Al-Arab waterway.
It is one of a total of eight presidential palaces that Saddam has built since he came to power 24 years ago, and the fourth to come under the US/UK coalition's control. Two lines of security walls ring the entire three kilometre square complex, policed by no less than 16 even taller guard towers topped by heavy machine gun posts.
As we explored the endless corridors of marble, the enormous bathrooms with their gold-plated taps, and the grand state rooms ringed by stained glassed ceilings, we felt like little children in a sweet shop. And for a few quick hours, the war was forgotten.
It must have cost tens of millions of pounds to build this palace, with all its astonishingly ornate carving work, precious materials, and columns of granite statues. But locals say Saddam only ever stayed here once or twice, in the months after it was completed in 1992. Despite all its riches, the palace had sat empty of any occupant for more than 10 years, but was kept fully staffed with its dozens of servants 24 hours a day.
Troops from Juliet Company, 42 Commando, found the palace and its grounds almost empty, and had only one short fire fight with a last handful of defenders who were attempting to escape the complex by motor boat.
Neat rows of date palms lined the large compound that housed three landscape-gardened large lakes. And venetian bridges connected the paved driveways with the dozens of outbuildings occupied by servants and Special Republican Guard and the palace's three main residential buildings.
A connecting annex building was attached to it on the right side, as either a guest house or a mistress's boudoir. Saddam's bedroom and main state room was approached by a series of ante-chambers, like you would find on an approach with an audience with a medieval emperor.
On the left of Saddam's building was a rectangular-shaped structure, the home for his sons Uday and Qusay. And to the right is a circular shaped building used to house his four wives and decorated in feminine pinks. In every one of the three buildings, two lifts had been installed to take passengers from the ground floor to the first and second floors.
By afternoon, a crowd of several hundred locals had gathered outside the palace's gates to snatch a quick look over the tall and now deserted walls.
One Basra labourer Hussein Ali (31) said: "This land was a public park open to everyone before Saddam built this palace. We used to come and have picnics here on Friday."
As dusk fell over Basra last night, Maj Jeff Moulton of the Royal Marines thought aloud: "I don't know what will happen to this place now. I imagine we'll give it back to the local people sooner or later. It was built with their blood and money, and so I would say it belongs to them."