Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
bicycles, a Russian vintage car, an early biplane and a curiously unconcerned- looking
victim facing a firing squad.
BAZAAR
Caravanserai Azizolaof
The streets surrounding the Haram's various entrances are full of tourist trinket sellers but
also a selection of real markets. This run-down, century-old caravanserai contains down-
market electronics stalls run by Afghans. Hurry to see this area before it's all demolished
as the Haram precinct plans to expand yet again.
MASHTI
Although slightly less significant than pilgrimages to Mecca, Najaf or Karbala, a pilgrimage to Mashhad remains a
deeply significant expression of faith for any Shiite Muslim. After
wudu
(ablutions), the supplicant humbly enters
the Holy Shrine asking 'permission' from Imam Reza through specific prayers and recitations. Following tearful
meditations and Quranic readings, the pilgrimage culminates with the recitation of the
Ziyarat Nameh
prayer in
front of the
zarih
(tomb) of Imam Reza.
In the same way that hajj pilgrims are respectfully known as
haji,
those who have fulfilled the pilgrimage to
Mashhad are entitled to attach the prefix
Mashti
to their names.
SIGHTS BEYOND THE SHRINE COMPLEX
Boq'eh-ye Khajeh Rabiعیبر هجاوخهعقبآ
This beautifully proportioned, blue-domed
mausoleum
commemorates an apostle of the
prophet Mohammad. Coming to pay respects here was said to have been Imam Reza's
'main consolation' in coming all the way out to Khorasan. The tower took its present form
after a 1612 rebuild, which added a band of interior Kufic inscriptions by master-calli-
grapher Ali Reza Abbasi. The jolly floral motifs around it date from a Qajar redecoration.
Surrounding the mausoleum is a large cemetery paved with thousands of tombstones.
Burial here currently costs from US$800. That gets you stacked four bodies deep for 30
years before you're dug up again; pay four times that amount per body if you want a 'fam-
ily room' within surrounding arched colonnades. That's still only half what you'd pay to
deposit a corpse beneath the Haram. Get here on bus 34 from Tabarsi Blvd or 38 from
Kuh-e Sangi.
MAUSOLEUM
