Bahá'í World Centre

Overview

The Bahá'í World Centre is the spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá'í Faith. It has two separate locations in northern Israel: Haifa and nearby Acre, where the shrines of Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the faith, and the Báb, the prophet who announced his coming, are located. Both shrines form part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Present

The Bahá'í World Centre houses the seat of the Universal House of Justice, the elected international council that governs the Bahá'í Faith. The affairs of Bahá'í communities around the world are administered from Mount Carmel, with staff and volunteers serving from many countries. A formal pilgrimage program brings Bahá'ís to pray at the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa and the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí near Acre. The terraced gardens surrounding the Shrine of the Báb descend the slope of Mount Carmel in nineteen levels and are open to visitors of all backgrounds.

Religious Significance

The Bahá'í World Centre holds the two most sacred sites of the Bahá'í Faith, a religion founded in 19th-century Persia that teaches the oneness of God, the unity of all religions, and the unity of humanity. The Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahjí, near Acre, is the resting place of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the faith, whom Bahá'ís believe was a messenger of God. Bahá'ís hold that he is the promised one whose coming was foretold in the scriptures of earlier religions. Bahá'ís regard his shrine as the holiest place of their faith and turn toward it in their daily obligatory prayers. The Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa is the resting place of the Báb, who announced the coming of Bahá'u'lláh and founded the movement from which the Bahá'í Faith grew. Bahá'ís believe the Báb was also a messenger of God. Pilgrimage to the two shrines is a central devotional practice of the faith.

History & Structure

The Bahá'í World Centre developed from the exile of Bahá'u'lláh, who was banished from Persia and sent as a prisoner to the fortress city of Acre in 1868. He spent his final years at Bahjí, a mansion outside the city, where he died in 1892. His shrine adjoins the mansion. The Báb was executed in Persia in 1850. His remains were hidden by his followers for decades and interred in 1909 on Mount Carmel in Haifa, at a spot Bahá'u'lláh had designated. The golden-domed superstructure over the Shrine of the Báb was completed in 1953, and the nineteen garden terraces around it, descending the mountainside toward the city and the sea, were completed in 2001. The administrative buildings on Mount Carmel, including the marble-columned Seat of the Universal House of Justice, were built in the second half of the 20th century. In 2008 the Bahá'í holy places in Haifa and the Western Galilee were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Additional Resources

• Official website: Bahá'í World Centre
• UNESCO: Bahá'i Holy Places in Haifa and the Western Galilee