🔸He is the only Shia Imam buried in Iran. The shrine covers several hundred thousand square meters in area. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the development of this religious site gained significant momentum. All expenses of the shrine are covered by public donations. Around the year 815 AD, he was forced by the ruling caliph of the time to come from Medina to Tus, and about three years later, he was martyred by the same ruler. Since then, the city of Tus came to be known as the "place of martyrdom," which in Arabic is called "Mashhad."

🔸These days, Mashhad and the shrine of Imam Reza (pbuh) are experiencing a different atmosphere. The body of the martyred Leader, Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei is to be buried in a corner of this sacred site. From childhood, he had a deep connection with this place. His childhood home was close to the shrine. One of his childhood pastimes was going to the shrine's library and borrowing books. He first read the Persian translation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables from that very library, reading portions of it. During his leadership, at the start of each Iranian solar year, he would travel to Mashhad and deliver his first speech of the year in the largest courtyard of the shrine. It was the martyred Leader's own wish to be buried in Mashhad.

🔸Imam Khomeini, the founder and first leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, referred to the shrine of Imam Reza (pbuh) as the heart of Iran. When news broke of the helicopter crash involving Iran's president, and there was still no word on the fate of Hojjat al-Islam Raisi, the martyred Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, reassured the people in a speech, saying not to worry — that Iran is the Iran of Imam Reza (pbuh), and his blessings encompass all the people of Iran. The martyred President Sayyid Ebrahim Raisi is also buried at the shrine of Imam Reza (pbuh).

🔸These images were captured this morning, Thursday, July 9, 2026, at the largest open space of the shrine, known as the "Razavi Grand Courtyard." People have been arriving in Mashhad over the past days to take part in the funeral rites and burial oM martyr Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei.