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Qom is a city in central Iran, south of Tehran on the banks of the Qom River, and one of the holiest cities in Shia Islam. It is famous for the Fatima Masumeh Shrine and Jamkaran Mosque, and its top sights also include the Azam and Jameh mosques, Feyziyeh School, Namak Lake and Dayr-e Gachin Caravanserai.
Fatima bint Musa, sister of the eighth Shia Imam, died here in 816-17, and her tomb grew into the shrine that made Qom a place of pilgrimage. By 1503, under the Safavids, it had become an important centre of Shia theology, and the modern Qom Seminary was founded in 1922 by Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi.
The city had 1,201,158 people at the 2016 census, and about 20 million pilgrims visit every year. Qom lies on the edge of Iran's central desert, with a hot desert climate and very hot, almost rainless summers. Imam Khomeini International Airport, the largest in Iran, lies on the highway between Tehran and Qom.
The Fatima Masumeh Shrine in Qom, Iran, is the tomb of Fatima bint Musa, sister of the eighth Shia Imam, who died in the city in 816-17. One of the most important shrines in Shia Islam, it has a burial chamber, three courtyards and three prayer halls over 38,000 m2, and draws millions of pilgrims.
Jamkaran Mosque, also called the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque, stands in the village of Jamkaran on the outskirts of Qom, Iran, about 6 km east of the city. Shia belief holds that the twelfth Imam once prayed here, and it draws more than 15 million pilgrims a year, many on Wednesday nights.
The Azam Mosque of Qom, Iran, stands beside the Fatima Masumeh Shrine and was built by Grand Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi, with its foundation stone laid in 1954 and work completed in 1961. Its dome is 30 m across, its minarets rise 45 m from the basement, and a clock tower stands to the north.
Imamzadeh Ali ibn Jafar is a Shia mausoleum on Enghelab Street in Qom, Iran, next to the Golzar Shohada cemetery. Built in the Seljuk and Ilkhanid styles, with additions made until 1340, it honours Ali ibn Jafar, a pious scholar and hadith narrator, and joined Iran's National Heritage List in 1935.
The Jameh Mosque of Qom, Iran, also called the Atiq Jameh Mosque, is one of the oldest mosques in the city and stands in its downtown area. Its dome was completed in 1134-35, its tall south porch with coloured plasterwork is from the Safavid period, and no iron was used in its 6,000 m2 building.
The Imam Hasan al-Askari Mosque in Qom, Iran, was first built in the 9th century by the theologian Ahmad ibn Ishaq Ash'ari Qomi and is one of the oldest mosques in Iran. Rebuilt and enlarged over the centuries, with Safavid and Qajar additions, it reopened in 2015 after a major reconstruction.
Feyziyeh School is a Safavid-era religious school in Qom, Iran, rebuilt and extended under Fath-Ali Shah Qajar in 1799, with 40 rooms set around a square pool. It is famous as the site of Ayatollah Khomeini's 1963 Ashura speech against the Shah, and it was listed as a national monument in 2008.
The Ayatollah Marashi Najafi Library in Qom, Iran, near the Fatima Masumeh Shrine, is the third largest library in Iran and the world's third largest Islamic library. Founded in 1963 from Ayatollah Marashi Najafi's own collection, it holds over 250,000 books, and he is buried at its entrance.
The Qom River, once called the Golshan or Flowering River, flows through the centre of Qom, Iran, past the Fatima Masumeh Shrine. Fed from the Zagros Mountains, it runs with the Qareh Su for about 400 km into Namak Lake, and its flow swings widely because much of its water is used for irrigation.
Namak Lake is a salt lake about 100 km east of Qom, Iran, on the western edge of the Great Salt Desert at 790 m above sea level. It covers about 1,800 km2, but most of it is dry and water covers only about 1 km2, so its shallow, very salty bed is coated in thick layers of salt.
Dayr-e Gachin Caravanserai is in the centre of Kavir National Park, 80 km north-east of Qom, Iran, on the old Ray to Isfahan road. Built in the Sasanian era and given its present form under the Safavids, it is known as the Mother of Iranian Caravanserais and became a World Heritage Site in 2023.
Kavir National Park covers 4,000 km2 of desert and steppe at the western end of the Kavir Desert, north-east of Qom, Iran, with Dayr-e Gachin Caravanserai at its centre. Its wildlife includes wild goats and sheep, gazelles, striped hyenas, Indian wolves, the Persian leopard and the Asiatic cheetah.
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