Gadhafi-Land': Libyans Are Converting Slain Dictator's Palace into Amusement Park

Libya’s Tourism Minister has announced plans to convert the sprawling compound of slain Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi into an amusement park.

Tourism Minister Ikram Basha Imam said Tuesday that eight private companies have been contracted to rebuild the site, known as Bab al-Aziziya, for the public’s enjoyment

"The work to clear away the rubble from the ruins of Bab al-Aziziya, which was a black spot in Tripoli and a source of concern for residents, has begun," the minister was quoted by AFP as saying.

"This space will be transformed into a green area and an amusement park as a place of entertainment for Libyan families," she added.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi standing outside a tent erected at his Bab al-Aziziya residence in Tripoli on April 10, 2011 (File photo: Mahmud Turkia/AFP/Getty Images)

The Middle Eastern website Al-Bawaba is calling it "Gadhafi-Land." The conversion plan is not that unusual considering what rebels discovered at the compound two years ago when they stormed the site after NATO bombed it.

Before ransacking and looting its contents, they found an amusement park on the premises. This is how the Daily Mail reported the find in August 2011:

Even as they made their way through the shattered buildings, they could see for themselves sufficient remnants of the bizarre Michael Jackson-style Neverland park, complete with fairground and zoo, that Gaddafi constructed in the heart of the capital city.[…]

The most outlandish sight in this whole bizarre fantasyland was the fairground in the gardens. It featured an old-fashioned carousel, with children’s seats on chains, and a roundabout decked out with a cartoon-style teapot and spinning cups for youngsters to play in.

Some rebels could not resist posing for pictures in the giant teacup rides and laughing with incredulity that the dictator had taken flight from his own compound. But one could only stare in disbelief at this theme park within a warzone.

Daily Mail reported that Gaddafi had also built a zoo there, “stocked with animals supplied by fellow African dictators.”

The Bab al-Aziziya presidential compound was bombed by U.S. jets in 1986 in response to the Berlin disco bombing blamed on Libya which killed two U.S. soldiers.

Since 2011, the palace has been home to squatters, for whom the tourism minister says social services are already making alternate living arrangements.

The palace covers several square acres and is situated in what is considered to be a desirable area of central Tripoli.

AFP reports that before settling on the idea of an amusement park, the government last year “announced plans to construct a library, theater and a monument to martyrs of the conflict on the site. But that project was subsequently abandoned in favor of a public park.”

Russia Today reports that this isn’t the first time a high-profile western target has been converted into a tourist attraction. “Earlier this year, Pakistani officials announced plans to build a recreation complex with a zoo, paragliding club and water sports facilities in the town where the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US navy seals in 2011,” it writes.

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