The Atabat: Iraq's four shrine cities

The journey in one line

5 stops in Iraq. Complete means all 5 visited.

Atabat means thresholds. It is the ordinary Arabic word Shi'a Muslims use for the shrine cities of Iraq, and the set is fixed: Najaf, Karbala, Kadhimiya in Baghdad, and Samarra. Karbala holds two shrines facing each other, so the route has five stops in four cities. People travel it in every direction and in no particular order. Many come for Arbaeen and walk between Najaf and Karbala with millions of others. Others come quietly, outside any season, and sit for an hour. This is a list of places, not a statement about anyone's practice. Recording a visit here says you were there.

Six of the twelve Shi'a imams are buried in these four cities. That concentration is why Najaf grew a seminary that still shapes religious law across the Shi'a world, and why Karbala's name became shorthand for a whole moral argument about power and refusal. The shrines are also institutions. They run hospitals, universities, printing houses and the water and food stations that keep the Arbaeen road moving. The secretaries of the shrines meet regularly and publish jointly, which is how the four came to be spoken of as one thing.

Najaf has the international airport most pilgrims use, and Karbala is about eighty kilometres north of it by road. Kadhimiya is inside Baghdad. Samarra is about 120 kilometres further north and is the hardest of the four to reach. Arbaeen falls forty days after Ashura and moves through the Gregorian year. During it the road between Najaf and Karbala fills with walkers and hospitality tents, and ordinary travel in the region slows to a crawl. Outside those weeks the cities are calm.

Where it goes

The stops, in order

What a visit means here. All five shrines visited. The two Karbala shrines stand apart and count separately, as their custodians treat them. Nothing here records Arbaeen or any other rite.

1. 1

   Imam Ali Shrine

   العتبة العلوية المقدسة

   Najaf, Iraq

   

   Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet and the first Shi'a imam, is buried under the gold dome at the centre of Najaf. The shrine gave the city its shape and its scholarship; the seminary around it has trained jurists for a thousand years. The custodians call it the Holy Alawi Shrine.

   What counts as a visit

   The shrine courtyards and the public halls.

   Access

   Iraq carries travel advisories for many passports and shrine cities run their own security and entry screening. Check your government's current advice and the shrine's own guidance before travelling. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisory

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

2. 2

   Imam Hussain Shrine

   العتبة الحسينية المقدسة

   Karbala, Iraq

   

   Husayn ibn Ali was killed with his companions at Karbala in 680, and the shrine stands over his grave. Arbaeen, forty days after Ashura, draws the largest annual gathering of people anywhere on earth, most of them walking the eighty kilometres from Najaf. The shrine administration runs hospitals, universities and water stations along that road.

   What counts as a visit

   The shrine courtyards and the public halls.

   Access

   Iraq carries travel advisories for many passports and shrine cities run their own security and entry screening. Check your government's current advice and the shrine's own guidance before travelling. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisory

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

3. 3

   Al-Abbas Shrine

   العتبة العباسية المقدسة

   Karbala, Iraq

   

   Abbas ibn Ali carried his brother Husayn's standard at Karbala and died trying to bring water back to the camp. His shrine faces the Imam Hussain Shrine across a single open square, and pilgrims cross between the two. The custodians run it as a separate institution under the name Al-Kafeel.

   What counts as a visit

   The shrine courtyards and the public halls.

   Access

   Iraq carries travel advisories for many passports and shrine cities run their own security and entry screening. Check your government's current advice and the shrine's own guidance before travelling. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisory

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

4. 4

   Al-Kadhimayn Shrine

   العتبة الكاظمية المقدسة

   Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Iraq

   

   Two imams are buried here, Musa al-Kadhim and his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad, which is why the shrine carries a dual name. It sits in the Kadhimiya district in the north of Baghdad and has four gold minarets and two gold domes over one enclosure. The custodians publish under the name Al-Jawadain.

   What counts as a visit

   The shrine courtyards and the public halls.

   Access

   Iraq carries travel advisories for many passports and shrine cities run their own security and entry screening. Check your government's current advice and the shrine's own guidance before travelling. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisory

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

5. 5

   Al-Askari Shrine

   العتبة العسكرية المقدسة

   Samarra, Iraq

   

   The tenth and eleventh imams, Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, are buried in Samarra, and the shrine's gold dome was bombed in 2006 and its minarets in 2007. Rebuilding took years and the attack is commemorated each November. The shrine also holds the graves of Narjis Khatun and Hakima Khatun.

   What counts as a visit

   The shrine courtyards and the public halls.

   Access

   Samarra carries stricter travel advice than Najaf or Karbala for most passports, and access is controlled. Check your government's advice and the shrine's own guidance before travelling. Checked 2026-09-16.

   Travel advisory

   Check access · last checked September 16, 2026

Respect and access

All four cities carry travel advisories for many passports, and the shrines run their own screening at the gates. Check both before you plan anything. Dress is conservative and enforced; women are given an abaya at the gate if they need one. Phones and cameras are restricted inside the shrines and bag rules vary by gate. Mourning here is public and loud in some seasons and silent in others, and either way it is not a performance for visitors.

Travel advisory

A government advisory currently applies to this area. Read the current advisory before planning anything.

Opening times, prices, permits and eligibility change. Nothing on this page is a statement about today. Follow the Check access link on a place before you plan around it.

Sources

• en.imamali.nethttps://en.imamali.net/ · checked September 16, 2026
• imamhussain.orghttps://imamhussain.org/english · checked September 16, 2026
• alkafeel.nethttps://alkafeel.net/description/?lang=en · checked September 16, 2026
• aljawadain.orghttps://aljawadain.org/home · checked September 16, 2026
• alaskarian.iqhttps://www.alaskarian.iq/ · checked September 16, 2026

TravelDay selected and grouped these places. Naming a custodian, a government agency or UNESCO as a source is not a claim that any of them endorsed this journey.