Behesht-e Zahra

For the village, see Beheshti, Tehran.
Behesht-e Zahra
بهشت زهرا

Shown within Tehran

Details
Established 1970
Location Tehran
Country Iran
Coordinates 35°32′10″N 51°22′12″E / 35.536°N 51.370°E / 35.536; 51.370
Type Public
Size 534 hectares
Number of graves 1,300,000
Website Official Website
Find a Grave Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery

Behesht-e Zahra (Persian: بهشت زهرا,The Paradise of Zahara), is the largest cemetery in Iran. Located in the southern part of metropolitan Tehran,[1] it is connected to the city by metro line No. 1. The cemetery has been one of the inspirations for the popular webcomic, Zahra's Paradise.

History

In the early 1950s, all the cemeteries in Tehran were supposed to be replaced by several large new ones outside the then precincts of the capital. Behesht-e Zahra was built in late 1960s on the southern side of Teheran towards the direction of the city of Qom and opened in 1970. The first person buried in Behesht-e Zahra was Mohammad-Taghi Khial.

Many of the deceased soldiers of the Iran–Iraq War were buried in the martyr's section of the graveyard.[2][3]

Notable burials

In addition to tombs of the royals, politicians, and other significant people, in the graveyard there are symbolic tombs for the perpetrators of the 1983 Hezbollah attacks on the U.S. Marine and French peacekeepers' barracks in Beirut and for the assassin of Anwar Sadat, Khalid Islambouli.[2] Similarly, a symbolic tomb was erected in the cemetery for Hezbollah member Imad Mughniyah, who was killed on 12 February 2008 in Damascus, Syria.[5]

Images

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beheshte Zahra Cemetery.
  1. Sahimi, Mohammad (3 February 2010). "The Ten Days That Changed Iran". PBS (Los Angeles). Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  2. 1 2 Alfoneh, Ali (Winter 2007). "Iran's Suicide Brigades". Middle East Quarterly XIV (7): 37–44. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  3. Thomas Goltz (8 April 2015). Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-rich, War-torn, Post-Soviet Republic. Routledge. pp. 442–. ISBN 978-1-317-47624-5.
  4. Scott Peterson (21 September 2010). Let the Swords Encircle Me: Iran – A Journey Behind the Headlines. Simon & Schuster. p. 701. ISBN 978-1-4165-9739-1. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  5. Chalhoub, Elie (14 February 2012). "Imad Mughniyeh in Iran: The Stuff of Legends". Al Akhbar. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
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