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The Bahai Temple in Wilmette\u00a0 is the second Bah\u00e1\u02bc\u00ed House of Worship ever constructed and the oldest one still standing.<\/p>\n
The temple was designed by French-Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois.<\/p>\n
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The building is a truly eclectic building, it combines neoclassical symmetry, Gothic ribbing, a Renaissance dome, a Romanesque clerestory and Islamic arabesque tracery with the suggestion of minarets.<\/p>\n
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To show \u00a0unity of religion (one of the principles of the Bahai religion) Bourgeois incorporated a variety of religious architecture and symbols on the exterior columns surrounding the structure.<\/p>\n
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On the top there is a star with 9 point representing the Bahai religion.<\/p>\n
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The number 9 is very important\u00a0 and can be seen all over the building. Bah\u00e1\u02bc\u00eds believe it symbolizes perfection and completion since nine is the last number in the decimal system.<\/p>\n
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There are nine entrances to the auditorium, nine interior alcoves, nine dome sections, <\/sup>and nine fountains in the garden area.<\/p>\n Inside the center of the dome ceiling, one can see an\u00a0Arabic\u00a0inscription. This is a Bah\u00e1\u02bc\u00ed symbol called the “Greatest Name”; the script translates as “O Thou Glory of Glories”.<\/p>\n The\u00a0cladding\u00a0of the building is composed of a\u00a0concrete\u00a0mixture of\u00a0portland cement\u00a0and two types of\u00a0quartz. <\/sup>Many intricate details are carved into the concrete.<\/p>\n John Earley, a fifth generation stone carver who came from a family of ecclesiastical artists, made the concrete beautiful. Inspired by Italian pebble mosaics, Earley developed a method of exposing the larger pebbles in the aggregate of the concrete mixture. This gave the concrete a warmer appearance. On the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed \u00a0Temple he used two types of quartz to give the exterior an almost luminescent quality.<\/p>\n Bourgeois nor Earley saw the completed temple. In 1978, the House of Worship was added to the\u00a0National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2579,"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/franciscaclaret.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/IMG_0217-1024x683.jpg\")
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