Two Cities, One Centre

The Baha'i World Centre is administrative and devotional at once, and the two functions sit in different places. Haifa holds the Shrine of the Bab on the slope of Mount Carmel, with the Seat of the Universal House of Justice and the other permanent institutions of the Baha'i administrative order arranged on the arc of terraces above and below it. Acre, a short distance north around the bay, holds Bahji, where Baha'u'llah spent the last years of his life and where he is buried. Baha'is turn towards Bahji in obligatory prayer, which makes it the qiblih of the faith, and pilgrimage to the World Centre is a recognised devotional obligation for those able to undertake it.

The arrangement was not chosen for convenience. Peter Smith notes that both locations are consequences of exile: Baha'u'llah was sent to Acre as an Ottoman prisoner in 1868, and the Bab's remains, hidden for decades after his execution at Tabriz in 1850, were interred on Mount Carmel in 1909 at a spot Baha'u'llah had indicated during a visit. A religion's permanent centre therefore stands on ground its founder was brought to under guard. The properties in Haifa and Acre were inscribed together on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2008.