TEHRAN—The number of foreign travelers to Mashhad, one of the holiest places for Shia Muslims, jumped 311 percent during the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 20), compared to the same period a year earlier.

“During the first half of the year, more than 763,000 foreign air passengers arrived in Mashhad, which is a 311 percent increase compared to the same period of last year,” ISNA quoted the director general of Khorasan Razavi airports as saying on Saturday.

In the first six months of the current year, more than 29,000 flights landed and took off at Mashhad Airport, which shows a 32% increase compared to the same period last year, Mahmoud Amanibani added.

Mashhad, which is home to the shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Shiite imam, hosted millions of pilgrims during the last ten days of [the lunar month of] Safar (Sep. 17 to 27). The travelers came together 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 capital of Khorasan Razavi province, embraces dozens of five-star hotels, hostels, and guest houses. The city has also the highest concentration of water parks in the country, and it also holds a variety of cultural and historical sites that are generally crowded. The northeastern 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