On our last in Damascus, before heading for Aleppo, we took a taxi to a southern suburbs of Damascus to visit the Sayyidah Zainab Mosque. In this stunning Shiite mosque the prophet’s granddaughter Zaynab is buried. After Kerbala it is the most important shrine for Shites. Located 6 km south of Damaskus, IS was dangerously close during the war. To protect it from destruction through IS, 10,000 Shites from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan flooded into Syria to join the Syrian army. Many are still there, doing volunteer work at the mosque. To get their you have to pass through five check points, but not those with bored soldiers staring at their mobile phones and waving you through. Once our passports were taken and we had to step out of the taxi.
Shite Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
Shite Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
Shite Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
The lady section was packed when I arrived, children were running around. Most women were praying, others were fighting their way to the very tomb, kissing the metal grid. Once in a while a guardian wipped them of in a green silky cloths.
Worshippers Kissing the top
Shite Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
Tight security and Martyrdom
The last couple hundreds of meters we had to walk, because concrete slabs block the road, soldiers are omnipresent. To get in we had to pass through metal detectors and no bags could be taken inside the compound. Naturally we were surprised by this immense safety measures. Later we learned that within the last 15 years the mosque was attacked seven times killing hundreds of people in total, and injuring even more. But nobody ever got close enough to harm the mosque itself which nowadays is funded mainly by Iran.
huge concrete labs protect the entry area to the mosque
Posters of martyr on every wall
Bastian from Switzerland posting for selfie with soldier
Shiite martyrs everywhere
all these fighters protecting the mosque need to shop somewhere
Shite Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
It was worth the trouble, the whole compound consista of a large courtyard, the mosque and other buildings, all breathtakingly beautiful. When you step inside you are almost blinded by the glitter and shiny tiles.
Shite Sayyidah Zainab Mosque
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