Tomb of Sheikh Heidar

The tomb of Sheikh Heidar is located in the city of Meshgin Shahr (Ardabil region). The main building of the mausoleum was built in the seventh and eighth century of the lunar Hegira while the decorations and the tile work belong to the end of the ninth century and to the beginning of the tenth (safavid period).

The mausoleum of the Sheikh Heidar, attributed to the father of the Shāh Esmāil I, is a brick building that looks like a tall circular tower more than 18 meters from the outside, with ornamental motifs in majolica and from the inside like a twelve-sided structure sides; it is located in the complex that bears the same name and was once the ancient cemetery of Meshgin Shahr.

Among the main parts of this complex you can mention the entrance portal, the large and the small courtyard, the cemetery of the fallen, the Janat Sarā mosque and the chelle khāne (place of prayer and meditation) which includes the ghandil khāne (place where glass jars were kept) theharamkhāne (place inside the house reserved for women) and the chini khāne (place where the porcelains were stored).

The dome Allah Allah is considered the most remarkable and certainly most appreciated part of the complex. The mausoleum building stands on a stone base, the entrance door and its three windows are adorned with muqarnas of stucco and tile and the frame shaped like mihrab you can see all the places in the building.

The interior consists of two floors, lower and upper and the entrance door of the crypt is located north of the tower and by means of a high flight of stairs and through a narrow passage leads to it.

The arch of this part is placed on brick columns in the center and on adjacent walls. The sepulcher of Sheikh Heidar is placed in the crypt. It is said that the ceiling of the mausoleum had a golden dome and that it in the war between the Ghujabiglou family and the Russian army in the year 1275 of the solar Hegira was bombed by the Russians and plundered.