Mashhad-Iran
Mashhad is the second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia Muslim world. It is located 850 kilometres (530 mi) east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.
In Arabic, the name Mashhad means the place of martyrdom the place where Imam Reza - the eighth Imam of Shia muslims - martyred and so his shrine is placed there.
The city benefits from the proximity of the mountains, having cool winters, pleasant springs, mild summers, and beautiful autumns. It is only about 250 km (160 mi) from Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Mashhad consists mainly of people of Iranian descent (primarily Persian, Tajik, Hazara, Kurdish and Turkmen ethnic groups). Among the non-Iranians, there are sizable population of Afghanistani, Iraqi, Pakistani,as well as small population of Kuwaiti, Bahraini and (Chechen and Dagestani from Russia.
Mashhad features a steppe climate with hot summers and cool winters. The city only sees about 250 mm of precipitation per year, some of which occasionally falls in the form of snow.
The second largest holy city in the world, Mashhad attracts more than 20 million tourists and pilgrims every year, many of whom come to pay homage to the Imam Reza shrine (the eighth Shi'ite Imam)..