Mashhad

Mexed or Meched is a city in Iran, in the province of Razavi Heart. It is located in the northeast of the country, close to the border with Afghanistan and Turkmenistan. It is the second largest city in the country, with around 2.83 million inhabitants.
In 2009 (anniversary of the death of Imam Reza), then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Mexede the "spiritual capital of Iran".
The city is named after the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Shia Imam. The Imam was buried in a village in Khorasan, which later gained the name Mashhad, meaning the place of martyrdom. Every year, millions of pilgrims visit the Imam Reza shrine. The Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid is also buried in the same shrine.