Al-Askari Mosque

The al -Askari Shrine (Arabic مرقد الإمامين علي الهادي والحسن العسكري Marqad al - imāmain ʿ Alī al - Hādī wal- Hasan al - ʿ Askari ) is the name for a shrine and made ​​him sheltering Mosque ( " Golden Mosque ") in the Iraqi city of Samarra, which lies 125 km north of Baghdad. He is also known as " grave of the two imams " or " Golden Mosque " and is considered one of the most important shrines of the Shiite Muslims.

In the shrine are the Imam Ali al -Hadi and his son Imam al -Hasan al - Askari - the 10th and 11th Imam of the Zwölfer-Schiiten/Imamiten - and buried two female members of the family of the Prophet Muhammad, namely Hakima Khatun, the sister of Imam Ali Naqi - on, which has reported in detail on the circumstances of the birth of Imam al -Mahdi, and Nargis Khatun, the mother of Imam al- Mahdi. About the actual shrine, the approximately 68 m high main tower rose with a diameter of about 20 m, was donated to the golden dome of Naser ad -Din Shah and completed under Muzaffar ad -Din Shah in 1905. The shrine is visited every year by thousands of Shiite pilgrims from all over the world.

Bomb attack

The building was occupied by insurgents and severely damaged on 22 February 2006 by extremists in a bomb attack in October 2004, the dome was destroyed. Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al - Jafari then ordered a three-day national mourning. Operation Swarmer was performed because of this attack and the ongoing violence in the region. After it was all over the country to clashes between Shiites and Sunnis. Another bomb attack on 13 June 2007 destroyed the two minarets of the mosque completely.

Reopening

After the reconstruction of the golden dome and minarets of the two was completed in April 2009, the shrine was re-opened for visitors.