Tomb of Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam was a mathematician and astronomer of Nishapur in Khorasan before he was a poet to the rest of the world. He worked on the solution of cubic equations and took part in the calendar reform under the Seljuk sultan Malik-Shah, and he died around 1131. In Iran he is honoured for both sides of his work; in the English-speaking world he is known mainly through Edward FitzGerald's free Victorian version of his rubaiyat, the quatrains attributed to him.

His monument, completed in 1963, was designed by the architect Houshang Seyhoun. It is a work of open geometry rather than a closed tomb: ten tall, slender, angled ribs rise from a star-shaped base and lean together, the spaces between them latticed with tile patterns. The structure is often read as a nod to Khayyam's mathematics and astronomy, a kind of drawn star made solid.

Quatrains attributed to Khayyam are worked into the tilework in calligraphy, so that reading the monument means circling it. It stands in a garden near the shrine of the Sufi saint Imamzadeh Mahruq, among rose beds and fruit trees, a setting that suits a poet so fond of wine, gardens and passing time. Nearby is the tomb of the poet Attar, which many visitors see on the same trip.