Shiraz- Mausoleum of Shah Cheraq

This absolutely huge mausoleum housing the grave of Seyyed Mir Ahmad a brother of of the 8th Imam (8th of 16 prophets including Allah) is absolutely flabberghasting and beats everything I have ever seen in glitter beauty and grandeur. It is one of the major places of pilgrimage for Shiite Islam.
Our visit at night was overshadowed by a massacre that had happened 25 days previous where a soldier of the "IS" entered with a machine gun, killing 23 and seriously wounding 40.
The whole shrine was covered with huge photographs of the corpses covered in blood (now celebrated as martyrs) with bullet holes in the walls.
Here, someone had entered the absolute center of the Shiite religion and created sacrilege of a highest order. This could be felt everywhere.
One picture moved me particularly deeply, a child had obviously just painted its family visiting the shrine on a piece of paper. This child had been killed, blood was all over the painting.
I'll let the pictures speak.Read more