At the height of his reign, Saddam had the walls of the ancient city of Babylon broken down and then rebuilt. On each brick used in the reconstruction is the line – 'In the reign of the victorious Saddam Hussein, the president of the Republic, may God keep him, the guardian of the great Iraq and the renovator of its renaissance and the builder of its great civilization, the rebuilding of the great city of Babylon was done ...'

But the man who wanted glory never forgot where he came from. He never erased three dots tattooed onto his wrist, the mark of a peasant.

Image: Saddam Hussein during his trial in early 2006.