Flowers and a raised fist: Tehran's Grand Mosalla readies for Khamenei farewell

At the entrance to the vast religious complex where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s body is set to lie in state from Saturday, dozens were hard at work under an intense heatwave to prepare for the assassinated supreme leader’s grand funeral. Security was on high alert ahead of the start of the funerary activities for Iran’s ruler for three decades, with dozens of personnel stationed at the main entrance to the Grand Mosalla, methodically stopping each car in the vicinity. Passengers must present a special permit to enter the premises, which have yet to be opened to the public. A man uses a hose during preparations for a funeral ceremony for Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on February 28 in Israeli and US airstrikes, at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla, in Tehran, Iran on July 2, 2026. — Reuters AFP obtained special access on Thursday, as a handful of curious bystanders watched the preparations from just outside the complex. Within, the walls were draped in massive portraits of the late Khamenei, alongside black flags of mourning and red ones symbolising martyrdom and vengeance. In one image, Khamenei — then the president — appears alongside young fighters in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Hossein Moghadassi, one of those who has been working on the site for days, said, “We are planting flowers and watering the shrubs for the farewell ceremony of our martyred guide.” Workers on scaffolding during preparations for a farewell ceremony for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran on July 2, 2026. — Reuters He was clad in a hat and a scarf to cover his face as temperatures soared, with trucks transporting hundreds of boxes of drinking water in anticipation of the mercury surpassing 35º Celsius on Saturday, the first of six days of national mourning. “People will come from all over Iran. There will be huge crowds,” Moghadassi added. ‘Vengeance’ Authorities expect between 15 and 20 million people