More renowned for the destruction of buildings than their construction, Sultan Muhammad Khodabandeh (aka Öljeitü), of the Ilkhanid (Mongol) breakaway dynasty constructed this building between 1302 and 1312 AD.
The third largest dome in the world, it was constructed to house the remains of Imam Ali and his son, Hussein which were to be moved here from Baghdad.
When this never happened it became the tomb of Khodabandeh when he died in 1316.

Designated a world heritage site in 2005, a huge amount of restoration work continues to take place as time and climate have not been kind to this massive structure.

As everywhere in Iran, great hospitality was shown to us by one of the administrators (whose name I forget) who gave us a personal tour of the site.
A keen photographer like myself, he took one of my cameras and we were both happily running around capturing images. Both our photos are represented here.