Iraq: Karbala – Imam Abbas & Husayn Shrines
Karbala is a holy city for Shia Muslims (just like Mecca and Medina and Jerusalem) and massive pilgrimages happen here to the two combined shrines – Imam Abbas and Iman Husayn – during the Ashura (up to 8 million in one day!). Both shrines are clad in gold, interior all mirrors, the shrines are in the center, and insane crowd (without any masks) is pushing toward them. We did our best trying to understand the entire history and religion intertwined here, but gave up after a while and just resorted to people watching.
