features a soffit finished with pyramidal modules alternating steel and copper. The promenade is covered by a semi-circular, flat roof supported on a triangular steel bracing. The roof is covered with a copper sheet and the soffit displays V-shaped panels of stainless steel and Murano glass. It is surrounded by slanting girders of triangular section that are covered with marble. Red granite, stepped platforms of elliptical form lead to the dome and cubic sculpture. The steel flagpole is entirely covered with Murano glass panels fixed on stainless steel arms and displaying the national flag colours. Beneath the shield is a cube, made of seven layers of metal, said to represent the seven levels of Jannah in the Islamic faith. Inside the layers of metal are sheets of red acrylic, said to represent the blood of the slain Iraqi soldiers. The cube itself is connected to the underground museum by a long shaft with windows that allow light to shine in from above. Inside the museum, visitors can look up at the ceiling and see through the openings leading to the cube above. The monument appeared on the Iraqi dinar bank-note in the 1990–2003 series. First Unknown Soldier monumental arch The 1982 Monument to the Unknown Soldier was not the first of such monuments to be constructed in Baghdad. In 1959, an arched monument to the Unknown Soldier was erected in Baghdad's Firdos Square. It was designed by Iraqi architect, Rifat Chadirji, and was a modern adaption of the arch of Ctesiphon in the ancient capital of the Parthian Empire. Sketches of the design found at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, reveal the inspiration for the design which represents a mother bending over to pick up her martyred child. Described as a simple, symbolic, modernist structure, a comparison between the original and its later replacement illustrates the increasing level of abstraction and sophistication in Iraqi art during the period. The original was removed from al-Fardous Square to make way for a statue of Saddam Hussein in the early 1980s. The replacement statue was destroyed by the American forces after they captured Baghdad in 2003 while the world watched via television. Reports that Chadirji had been invited to rebuild the monument circulated for many years, but no progress has been evident, and the elderly Chadirji has since emigrated to England, where he lived with his wife, and where he died