Another Shia shrine

This is the mausoleum of the Martyr Hussein himself. It was much less crowded and had none of the singing and crying of his daughter's shrine had, despite the fact that Hussein's death is in many ways the epicenter of Shia emotion (if not theology).

Why? Apparently because the shrine contains only his head. It was brought back to Damascus as a trophy by his slayer, commander al-Hurr al-Riyahi, for the man who ordered his death, tyrant Yazid. The rest of Hussein's remains are at a far bigger shrine in Karbala. That shrine gets millions of pilgrims a year.