The Puzzling Shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini – Tehran, Iran
From gold, to silver, to gold again- the shrine of Emam Khomeini is a very confusing building in terms of architectural style with an even more confusing history.
The location Emam Khomeini was buried in was an open site on the opposite side of the Behesht-i-Zahra cemetery in Tehran, with nothing in it’s proximity, hence it was clear from the beginning there were plans to build a massive structure over his grave.
Construction of the initial structure began in the early 90’s and was completed by 1995, the design of the building was a simple modern shrine built from industrial materials, the interior contained over 190 steel columns supporting the roof and dome. The original dome of the shrine had a steel frame with a concrete covering that was coated in gold paint. This initial shrine was not a traditional building, it’s simple industrial modern aesthetic was clearly intentional and very unique.
Apparently though, some faction found the original shrine unsatisfactory and a short 15 years after it was completed, the shrine began to be completely reconstructed according to a phased plan- so the shrine would never fully shut down. The interior famous for it’s 196 columns, was completely redesigned and rebuilt to have virtually no columns, the only columns present in the new design were the new 4 massive ones supporting the weight of the new dome and rest of the ceiling. The new interior took a very different approach in its styling- rather than a simple and industrial aesthetic, the new interior went for a luxurious and unfortunately very tacky aesthetic, with the designers very tastelessly mixing modern and traditional artistic styles. This was most apparent in the new Zarih of the shrine, which is a giant version of those you’d find in historic shrines, whereas the original shrine of Khomeini simply had a Iron lattice cage around his grave.
Most importantly, the original dome of the shrine was completely dismantled in this reconstruction and replaced with a new dome of more traditional proportions. The new dome is also built from a steel frame, however this time was clad with silver coated metal plates, the minarets of the shrine were also coated in silver plates to match with the dome.
The new shrine was completed around 2010 after several years of phased construction. It seems the administration of the shrine was still not satisfied with the results at this point, just a few years after completion, scaffolding was once again erected around the dome and minarets and the silver plates cladding the dome and minarets were removed and replaced with gold plates.
Hence, in a period of 30 years, two very different shrines have stood over the tomb of Emam Khomeini and the dome has gone from gold, to silver, to gold again.