Khalid Nabi

Khalid Nabi is a shrine on a hilltop in the green, rolling hills north-east of Kalaleh, close to Iran's border with Turkmenistan. It is a place of pilgrimage for the Turkmen people of Golestan, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, and for visitors from across the region. The hills around it are some of the most beautiful in northern Iran, especially in spring, when they turn bright green and are dotted with poppies.

The shrine is traditionally said to hold the tomb of Khalid ibn Sinan, a figure whom some Islamic traditions describe as a prophet among the Arabs before the time of Muhammad. Two smaller shrines on nearby hills are associated in local tradition with companions of his. How a tomb of this figure came to be venerated in the Turkmen hills is not documented, and the tradition is best understood as part of the region's living devotional life.

Below the shrine lies the feature that draws most outside visitors: a cemetery of several hundred standing gravestones. Many are tall stone cylinders with a rounded head, and some are carved in forms that have been read as male and female figures. Their age and meaning are uncertain. Some writers have linked them with pre-Islamic fertility beliefs; others see them as Islamic-era grave markers in a local tradition of stone-carving. Archaeologists have not settled the question.

Pilgrims come to pray, to tie strips of cloth as tokens of vows, and to share meals on the hillside. Visitors are expected to treat the cemetery as what it is, a burial ground and a holy place.