Iran - Andrew Burke [99]
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AROUND TEHRAN
Away from the hyperactive streets of the capital are several easily accessible day trips and ski slopes, and the highest mountain in the Middle East.
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HOLY SHRINE OF IMAM KHOMEINI
When future generations look back on the historical periods of Iran, the early years of the Islamic Republic will be remembered as a time of great endeavour on the building front. This, the resting place of His Holiness Imam Khomeini, is the grandest of those endeavours. But while the scale of the Holy Shrine of Imam Khomeini (Map; 24hr) is quite enormous, for the time being it looks more like a shoddily built and empty aircraft hangar than one of Iran’s holiest sites.
The shrine is located between Tehran, the town that launched the 1979 revolution, and Qom, where the great man underwent his theological training. It’s enormous and flanked by four 91m-high towers symbolising Khomeini’s age when he died. The huge gold central dome is adorned with 72 tulips, which symbolise the 72 martyrs who fought and died with Imam Hossein in Karbala.
The shrine itself is inside a stainless steel zarih, a cage-like casing through which pilgrims pay their respects and no small number of bank notes. Men and women must approach from different sides. It’s surrounded by a vast empty expanse of concrete, that’s often covered with large carpets, and where families have picnics, kids roll coins along the floor and homeless men sleep. The ayatollah wanted his shrine to be a public place where people could enjoy themselves, rather than a mosque where they must behave with reverence, and but for the megalomaniacal architecture, his wishes have largely been met.
Outside the shrine are a few shops selling simple food and souvenirs and an adjoining Islamic university.
Getting There & Away
The last stop on Tehran Metro Line 1 (red) is Haram-e Motahar, the holy shrine, and at just IR1000 it is by far the best way to get here. Shuttle taxis and buses do make the trip, but why would you bother? The second last stop is Shohada, for the Behesht-e Zahra martyr’s cemetery, and most people see both on one trip.
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THE FUNERAL OF AYATOLLAH KHOMEINI
In 1989, the Islamic Republic’s final send-off for its founder and inspiration, Ayatollah Khomeini, culminated in the largest funeral ever held in the world – a crush of 10 million inconsolable mourners. It was a chaotic scene. As the hearse tried to move through the crowd towards the cemetery it was stopped repeatedly before the crowd eventually took the coffin and started passing it over their heads. By the time a helicopter was summoned it was too late and even the armed Komiteh guards couldn’t stop the body falling out of the coffin, and the crowd trying to tear pieces off the shroud to keep as holy relics.
Unless you thrive on chaos, you’re advised not to come here on or around 4 June, the anniversary of the ayatollah’s death, when hundreds of thousands of mourners visit the shrine.
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BEHESHT-E ZAHRA
Behesht-e Zahra is the main resting place for those who died in the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88). It is the sheer scale of the death represented here that is most moving. For some visitors, the roughly 200,000 glass boxes will be familiar from the TV and newspaper images from the ’80s depicting hysterical mourners surrounded by countless portraits of the dead. Like windows into another time,