Ruins
5/5
Holiday Inn Hotel Beirut
Towering 26 storeys above the Minet el-Hosn district of central Beirut, the abandoned Holiday Inn Hotel stands as the most iconic war-ruin in the Middle East. Opened in 1974 during Beirut's golden resort era, the luxurious skyscraper operated for barely a year before becoming the bloody epicenter of the Battle of the Hotels during the Lebanese Civil War. Today, its bullet-riddled, shell-pocked concrete shell along the Green Line is haunted by phantom gunfire, flickering window lights, and disembodied combat shouts.