Terraces (Bahá'í)
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The Terraces of the Bahá'í Faith are garden terraces that form nine above and nine below the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel within Haifa. Also known as the Hanging Gardens of Haifa they are one of the most visited tourist attractions in Israel. The architect is Fariborz Sahba from Canada.
The terraces represent the first eighteen disciples of the Báb, who were designated "Letter of the Living" ([info.bahai.org]).
Nine concentric circles thus provide the main geometry of the eighteen terraces. Just as the identification of a circle presupposes a centre, so the terraces have been conceived as generated from the Shrine of the Báb. The eighteen terraces plus the one terrace of the Shrine of the Báb make nineteen terraces total. Nineteen is a significant number within both the Bahá'í and Bábí religions.
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