Tomb of Nader Shah

Tomb of Nader Shah is a building in Mashhad designed by Hooshang Seyhoun.

About the person
Nader Shah was born into an ordinary family from the Qirqlu branch of the Afshars, a Turkic tribe living in Khorasan. When Safavid Iran was invaded by the Afghans, he entered the service of Safavid shah Tahmasp II and was named Tahmasp Qoli Khan. As a result of his skillful activity, he defeated the Afghans, the Ottomans, and the Russians in a short period of time and expelled all the Safavids from the land. During this process, he strengthened his position, dethroned Tahmasp II in 1732, and proclaimed his young son Abbas III as king. In 1736, calling a congress in Mughan, dethroning Abbas III, and declaring himself shah, he ended the 235-year rule of the Safavid dynasty.

History
After Nader's successful campaign against the Mughal Empire, he returned to his homeland with immense wealth: the peacock throne, the Koh-i-Noor diamond, and “700 elephants, 4,000 camels and 12,000 horses carrying wagons all laden with gold, silver and precious stones”. After the precious jewels brought from India were hidden near Kalat, Nadir ordered the Mughal architects he had brought with him to build a magnificent mausoleum for him. This mausoleum must have been in the Mughal style.

As a result of Nader Shah's assassination in 1747, the mausoleum was not completed during his lifetime. In this period, another example of architecture built in the Mughal style by Nadir Shah in the city of Mashhad was called "Sun Palace" or Kakh-e Khurshid. This mausoleum was converted into a residence palace by various tribal leaders and Nader Shah’s body remained un-commemorated until the 1960s when a concrete monument was constructed for him in the vicinity of a heavily polluted traffic intersection in Mashhad.

Interior
Despite its incomplete exterior, the interior of the Khorshid is fully refined: each doorway is decorated by miniature paintings and Mughal frescoes.