Lotus Temple

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The Lotus Temple, also known as the Baháʼí House of Worship, New Delhi, is a Baháʼí House of Worship at Bahapur in south Delhi, India. Designed by the architect Fariborz Sahba, it takes the form of a half-open lotus of 27 free-standing marble-clad concrete petals, arranged in three rings of nine around a central hall. It was dedicated on 24 December 1986 and opened to the public on 1 January 1987. Baháʼís in India first sought permission for a House of Worship in 1920, and the land at Bahapur was bought in 1954 under a plan set by Shoghi Effendi. On 1 April 1974, the Universal House of Justice led plans for its development as part of a Baháʼí Five Year Plan. Construction by the ECC Construction Group of Larsen & Toubro, to a structural design by the London engineers Flint & Neill, ran from 1980 to 1986. The temple is among the most visited sites in India, drawing more than five million visitors a year and, by 2014, more than 100 million in all. Reviewers compared it with the Sydney Opera...

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