At the entrance to the vast religious complex where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s body is set to lie in state from Saturday, dozens were hard at work under an intense heatwave to prepare for the assassinated supreme leader’s grand funeral.
Security was on high alert ahead of the start of the funerary activities for Iran’s ruler for three decades, with dozens of personnel stationed at the main entrance to the Grand Mosalla, methodically stopping each car in the vicinity.
Passengers must present a special permit to enter the premises, which have yet to be opened to the public.
He was clad in a hat and a scarf to cover his face as temperatures soared, with trucks transporting hundreds of boxes of drinking water in anticipation of the mercury surpassing 35º Celsius on Saturday, the first of six days of national mourning.
“People will come from all over Iran. There will be huge crowds,” Moghadassi added.
Authorities expect between 15 and 20 million people to participate in the funeral in Tehran alone. The gates to the Grand Mosalla are set to open at 6am (0230 GMT) on Saturday.
Within the premises, dozens of ambulances and rescue vehicles have been parked in preparation for the funeral of the supreme leader, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28.
Black banners bear several of Khamenei’s most famous quotes, while an image of the late leader with a raised fist — a symbol of resistance against the West — was ubiquitous across the site.
Other banners read: “We are mourning, but we remain on our feet.”
The Mosalla’s main building, a mosque, will host the supreme leader’s remains over three days for “pilgrims”, according to the organisers.
On Monday, a procession will travel through the streets of the capital before arriving on Tuesday in the Shia holy city of Qom.
Khamenei will be buried on July 9 in Mashhad in northeastern Iran, another holy city and the late ruler’s birthplace.
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