Iraq · Baghdad Governorate · Baghdad
Sadr City, Baghdad — Area Guide & Where to Stay
A grid of numbered sectors covers Sadr City, a planned district of north-eastern Baghdad laid out in 1959 as Al-Rafidain District.
About Sadr City
Where to stay in Sadr City
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Sadr City was built to house people, not to lodge them. The district's ground is residential end to end, sector after sector of low housing served by the souks along Al-Fallah Street, so a bed here comes by local arrangement rather than from any row of hotels. Rooms sit south-west of the district instead.
If you want to walk these sectors, base yourself in central Baghdad and come out for the day, since the Al-Kadhimiya Mosque and the National Museum of Iraq that anchor most visits stand more than nine kilometres away, across the whole width of the city.
About Sadr City
What are the main landmarks in Sadr City?
Al-Fallah Street is the landmark Sadr City actually owns. The road cuts through the numbered sectors, and the Muraidi Market opens off the same grid, one of the souks that pull traders in from across Baghdad. Football has a ground here too.
The Five Thousand Stadium stands inside the district, while the Al-Shaheed Monument and the National Museum of Iraq that visitors picture when they think of Baghdad lie five to ten kilometres off, outside these sectors entirely.
What is the history of Sadr City?
Sadr City began as government housing. Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim ordered it built in 1959 on open ground east of Baghdad, to replace the reed shanties that families from the marshes of southern Iraq had raised at the city's edge, and it opened under the official name Al-Rafidain District. Naziha al-Dulaimi pushed the work through as minister of municipalities.
The sector plan came from Doxiadis Associates, and the name changed with every regime that followed: Al-Thawra in common speech, Saddam City from 1982, and Sadr City after 2003 for Ayatollah Mohammed al-Sadr.
Where is Sadr City?
Sadr City covers about 13 square kilometres of north-eastern Baghdad, set back east of the Tigris, its numbered sectors reaching the city's outer edge.
Good for
More areas in Baghdad
Updated September 2026