Uploaded February 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
There are only 8 Bahá'í House of Worship centers in the world. Commonly called "Chicago's Bahai Temple" is the only in North America and is the largest and the oldest surviving in the world. Known by Bahá'ís as the "Mother Temple of the West," this Mashriqu-l-Adhkár (Dawning-place of the Remembrance of God) is located on Lake Michigan, in Wilmette, Illinois. One of the three central figures of the Bahá'í faith, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, brought the cornerstone of the temple to the site in 1912. The cladding is white cement from Portland, Maine and is adorned with white quartz aggregate. Its incredible architecture and interior design received 59 awards, and in 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The other Bahá'í House of Worship locations are: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; Kampala, Uganda; Sydney, Australia; Hofheim-Langenhain, Germany; Panama City, Panama; Tiapapata, Samoa; Delhi, India; and Santiago, Chile.
There are only 8 Bahá'í House of Worship centers in the world. Commonly called "Chicago's Bahai Temple" is the only in North America and is the largest and the oldest surviving in the world. Known by Bahá'ís as the "Mother Temple of the West," this Mashriqu-l-Adhkár (Dawning-place of the Remembrance of God) is located on Lake Michigan, in Wilmette, Illinois. One of the three central figures of the Bahá'í faith, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, brought the cornerstone of the temple to the site in 1912. The cladding is white cement from Portland, Maine and is adorned with white quartz aggregate. Its incredible architecture and interior design received 59 awards, and in 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The other Bahá'í House of Worship locations are: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan; Kampala, Uganda; Sydney, Australia; Hofheim-Langenhain, Germany; Panama City, Panama; Tiapapata, Samoa; Delhi, India; and Santiago, Chile.
