Terraces

The Shrine of the Báb and its Terraces

The Terraces of the Bahá'í Faith, also known as the Hanging Gardens of Haifa, are garden terraces around the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel within Haifa, Israel. Described as the Eighth Wonder of the World, they are one of the most visited tourist attractions in Israel. The architect is Fariborz Sahba from Iran. Along with the Baha'i Holy Places in Western Galilee, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Symbolism

The terraces represent the first eighteen disciples of the Báb, who were designated "Letter of the Living" , although no individual terraces are connected with individual Letters.

Design

Nine concentric circles thus provide the main geometry of the eighteen terraces. Just as the identification of a circle presupposes a centre, so the terraces have been conceived as generated from the Shrine of the Báb. The eighteen terraces plus the one terrace of the Shrine of the Báb make nineteen terraces total. Nineteen is a significant number within both the Bahá'í and Bábí religions.

Fariborz Sahba began work in 1987 designing the gardens and oversaw construction. Beginning at its base, the gardens extend almost a kilometre up the side of Mount Carmel, covering some 200,000 square metres of land. The gardens are linked by extended sets of steps flanked by twin streams of running water cascading down the mountainside through the various levels and terrace bridges.

The gardens have elements of the Persian paradise gardens, isolating the site from the noise of the surroundings and connecting the different Bahá'í buildings on Mount Carmel together. Flowers are chosen in such a way that the colour schemes of the flower beds vary throughout the year.

From the central steps, the gardens spread along the hillside in three sections. The section nearest to each set of steps is formal, as shows up in photographs. There is mown grass and clear edging; the bushes are regular and are trimmed. If the visitor walks away from the steps, he/she enters a less formal area, in which the paths wind more, there are more low bushes, obscuring lines of sight, so that exploration is the only way to see what plants are there. Further away again, the edges of the gardens are quite natural, allowing a sanctuary for wildlife.

Water and ecology

One of the upper terraces.

The irrigation system includes a computer which, based on meteorologic data it receives, controls hundreds of valves to distribute water throughout the gardens by sprinkling and dripping. This is done at night and in the early morning, to avoid wasting water by evaporation. The water that flows alongside the stairs is circulating in a closed system within each terrace, so that almost no water is wasted.

External links

Bahai.media has a related page: Terraces

• Haifa's Baha'i Gardens video on Youtube
• "The Bahá'í Gardens - Official Website". Bahá’í World Centre. 2009-03-20.
• "BahaiPictures.com - A Comprehensive Collection of Photographs of the Bahá'í Terraces and Gardens". 2009-12-27.
• "Haifa's Majestic Bahai Gardens - A UNESCO World Heritage Site". Israel News. 2009-03-31.

This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Terraces (Bahá'í).