Mashhad is Iran’s holiest and second-largest city. Its raison d’être and main sight is the beautiful, massive and ever-growing Haram (shrine complex) commemorating the AD 818 martyrdom of Shiite Islam’s eighth Imam, Imam Reza. The pain of Imam Reza’s death is still felt very personally well over a millennium later and more than 20 million pilgrims converge here each year to pay their respects. Witnessing their tears is a moving experience, even if you’re not Muslim yourself.
Mashhad is also a good place to buy carpets, and it’s a staging post for travel to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and the little-touristed Khorasan region. Be aware that during Noruz and major Muslim holidays, almost all accommodation and transport will be booked out months in advance. (By contrast, at other times visiting Mashhad can prove quite a bargain.)
Imam Reza’s Holy Shrine is enveloped in a vast series of sacred precincts collectively known as the Haram-e Razavi, or Haram for short. This magical city-within-a-city sprouts dazzling clusters of domes and minarets in blue and pure gold behind fountain-cooled courtyards and magnificent arched arcades. It’s one of the marvels of the Islamic world, and it’s worth savoring its moods and glories more than once by visiting at different times of day.
This beautifully proportioned, blue-domed mausoleum commemorates an apostle of the prophet Mohammad who later exiled himself to Khorasan to avoid tensions between the prophet’s then-feuding followers. Paying respects at the grave was said to have been Imam Reza’s ‘main consolation’ in coming to Mashhad. The mausoleum took its present domed form after a 1612 rebuild, though much of the decorative tile work came later. Look for the two little dragon heads in green on the west iwan.
Arguably the Haram’s best museum. Rugs displayed here range from beautiful classics through to garish coral gardens and a Tabriz-made carpet-portrait of WWI bogeyman Kaiser Wilhelm II. Tying the staggering 30 million knots for Seven Beloved Cities took 14 years.
