Shrine of the Báb in the context of "Baháʼí Faith"

A monolithic column or single-piece column is a large column of which the shaft is made from a single piece of stone instead of in vertical sections. Smaller columns are very often made from single pieces of stone, but are less often described as monolithic, as the term is normally reserved for less common, larger columns made in this way. Choosing to use monolithic columns produces considerable extra difficulties in quarrying and transport, and may be seen as a statement of grandeur and importance in a building.

As an example of this level of choice, Shoghi Effendi cabled Bahá'ís of the world in 1948 about the Shrine of the Báb on December 10, 1948:

The Baháʼí World Centre is the name given to the spiritual and administrative centre of the Baháʼí Faith, representing sites in or near the cities of Acre and Haifa, Israel.

Much of the international governance and coordination of the Baháʼí Faith occurs at the Baháʼí World Centre, including global teaching plans and study and translation of the Baháʼí holy writings. The Universal House of Justice, representing the supreme governing body of the Baháʼí Faith, resides in Haifa. The Baháʼí World Centre is also a major destination for religious tourism, and the current destination for Baháʼí pilgrimage, attracting annually about one million visitors.

A Baháʼí pilgrimage currently consists of visiting the holy places in Acre and Haifa at the Baháʼí World Centre in Northwest Israel. Baháʼís do not have access to other places designated as sites for pilgrimage.

Baháʼu'lláh decreed pilgrimage in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas to two places: the House of Baháʼu'lláh in Baghdad, and the Báb's house in Shiraz. In two separate tablets, known as Suriy-i-Hajj, he prescribed specific rites for each of these pilgrimages. It is obligatory to make the pilgrimage, "if one can afford it and is able to do so, and if no obstacle stands in one's way". Baháʼu'lláh has "exempted women as a mercy on His part", though the Universal House of Justice has clarified that women are free to perform this pilgrimage. Baháʼís are free to choose between the two houses, as either has been deemed sufficient. Later, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá designated the Shrine of Baháʼu'lláh at Bahjí (the Qiblih) as a site of pilgrimage. No rites have been prescribed for this.

The Shrine of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá is the location in Israel wherein the remains of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, one of the central figures of the Baháʼí Faith, will be reinterred. Since his death in 1921, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's remains have been located beneath one of the rooms of the Shrine of the Báb in Haifa, Israel.