TEHRAN - The holy city of Mashhad, home to the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shiite imam, is estimated to host eight million pilgrims for ten days beginning September 17.

“Seven to eight million pilgrims are expected to travel to Mashhad during the last ten days of [the lunar month of] Safar,” ISNA quoted the tourism chief of Khorasan Razavi province as saying on Sunday.

Mashhad authorities are preparing to organize the tourist flow, and in this regard, all existing infrastructures such as schools, university dormitories, all religious places, and mosques will be at the service of pilgrims, Seyyed Javad Mousavi explained.

More than 500,000 overnight stays are expected per day as the figure will definitely increase in the latter days of Safar, the official said.

In the month of Safar, thousands of people gather in Mashhad to commemorate Arbaeen, which marks an end to the 40-day mourning period following the martyrdom of the Imam and his loyal companions at the Battle of Karbala on Muharram 10 in the year 61 AH (680 CE).

In August 2020, the spiritual tradition of pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS) was registered on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage list by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts.

Mashhad, the provincial capital, is Iran’s holiest and second-largest city. Its raison d’être and main sight is the striking massive shrine complex of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shia Imam.

Dozens of five-star hotels and hostels are dotted across Mashhad. The city has also the highest concentration of water parks in the country, and it also embraces a variety of cultural and historical sites that are generally crowded. The metropolis is also a good place to buy top handwoven rugs and carpets, and it’s a staging post for travel to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and little-touristic Khorasan regions.

According to official statistics, some 37 million Iranian pilgrims and travelers visited the shrine city of Mashhad during the first ten months of the past Iranian calendar year 1398 (started on March 21, 2019). Of whom, some eight million came by road, six million by rail, 3.8 million by air, and 18 million by private cars.

AM