Mashhad

The second largest city of Iran, capital of Khorasan province, Iran's largest province located North East nation. It's the holiest city and a place of pilgrimage for Shi'ite Moslems from all over the world. Khorasan, one of Iran's most important provinces both geographically and historically, once included parts of Afghanistan. Tadjikestan, Turkomanistan and Uzbakistan under the entity of the Greater Khorasan. It's also the cradle of Persian (Farsi) language and thecivilization of eastern Iran, and the homelandof many great Iranian poets, writers and scholars.
  Khorasan's most recent history is associated with the Afshar Dynasty and its founder Nader Shah Afshar. A number of edifices including the Qasr-e-Khorshid (Sun Place), scattered along the Kalat-e-Naderi, where Nader Shah kept his headquarters (1736-1747).    Nader is buried in Mashad in modern mausoleum. Imam Reza, the eight Shi'ite Imam, died in 818 A.D. in the small village of Sanabad in Khorasan, and was buried next to Abbasid Caliph, Harun-al-Rashid.
  The Shi'ite believe that he was murdered, and his tomb came to be known as Mashad, or the place of martyrdom.