Shrine of the Báb

Lore & Background

Baháʼu'lláh arrived in the Haifa-Akka region as a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire in the same year as the first German Templer colony in Palestine was founded in Haifa. Years later, after his release from strict confinement, he visited the Templer Colony on Mount Carmel several times and wrote a letter to Georg David Hardegg, the co-founder of the Templer movement. He subsequently asked his son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, to build, on the alignment of the Templer Colony road (Carmel Avenue) with the shrine to the forerunner of the religion, known as 'the Báb', halfway up the mountain. The remains of the Báb were buried on March 21, 1909 in a six-room mausoleum made of local stone. In a separate room, the remains of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá were buried in November 1921. In 1929 three rooms were added to the mausoleum. In 1949 the first threshold stone of the superstructure was laid by Shoghi Effendi. The construction was completed over the mausoleum in 1953 and was entirely paid for by Baháʼís around the world. The architect was William Sutherland Maxwell, a Canadian Baháʼí who was a Beaux-Arts architect and the father-in-law of Shoghi Effendi. Shoghi Effendi provided overall guidance, including in the use of Western and Eastern styles, but left the artistic details to Maxwell. Maxwell's design of the Baveno rose granite colonnade, Oriental-style Chiampo stone arches, and golden dome is meant to harmonize Eastern and Western proportions and style. Maxwell died in 1952, and Shoghi Effendi named the southern door of the Shrine after him. Some remaining aspects of the dome's structural engineering were designed by Professor H. Neumann of Haifa's Technion University.

Reader's Guide

The Shrine of the Báb holds profound significance for Baháʼís as the second holiest site on Earth, housing the remains of the Báb, the founder of the Bábí Faith and forerunner of Baháʼu'lláh. Its location on Mount Carmel was designated by Baháʼu'lláh in 1891, and the structure was planned by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and completed by Shoghi Effendi. The shrine's design, by Canadian architect William Sutherland Maxwell, blends Western and Eastern styles, featuring a golden dome, an 18-windowed drum, and an octagonal base. The superstructure, completed in 1953, was prefabricated in Italy and shipped to Haifa due to post-World War II material scarcity. In 2008, the shrine, along with other Baháʼí holy sites, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, recognized for its testimony to the Baháʼí tradition of pilgrimage and its profound meaning for the faith. The shrine is surrounded by 19 terraced gardens stretching one kilometer from the base to the summit of Mount Carmel, and is illuminated at night. It remains a place for quiet prayer and meditation, with no ceremonies or religious services held inside.

Did You Know?

• The dome is composed of 12,000 fish-scale tiles, some baked three times with a solution containing gold.
• The superstructure was said to be at the time the largest prefabricated building to move from Europe to any point in the world.
• Shoghi Effendi described the Shrine as 'Queen of Carmel enthroned on God's Mountain' in a message dated 19 August 1953.
• A restoration project of the exterior and interior started in 2008 and was completed in April 2011.