aced ribs of decorative as well as structural significance, which soar
to its apex and finally merge into a common unit pointing skyward. Its
framework is constructed of structural steel enclosed in concrete, the
material of its ornamentation consisting of a combination of crystalline
quartz, opaque quartz and white Portland cement, producing a composition
clear in texture, hard and enduring as stone, impervious to the elements,
and cast into a design as delicate as lace. It soars 191 feet from the
floor of its basement to the culmination of the ribs, clasping the
hemispherical dome which is forty-nine feet high, with an external
diameter of ninety feet, and one-third of the surface of which is
perforated to admit light during the day and emit light at night. It is
buttressed by pylons forty-five feet in height, and bears above its nine
entrances, one of which faces Akka, nine selected quotations from the
writings of Baha'u'llah, as well as the Greatest Name in the center of
each of the arches over its doors. It is consecrated exclusively to
worship, devoid of all ceremony and ritual, is provided with an auditorium
which can seat 1600 people, and is to be supplemented by accessory
institutions of social service to be established in its vicinity, such as
an orphanage, a hospital, a dispensary for the poor, a home for the
incapacitated, a hostel for travelers and a college for the study of arts
and sciences. It had already, long before its construction, evoked, and is
now increasingly evoking, though its interior ornamentation is as yet
unbegun, such interest and comment, in the public press, in technical
journals and in magazines, of both the United States and other countries,
as to justify the hopes and expectations entertained for it by
'Abdu'l-Baha. Its model exhibited at Art centers, galleries, state fairs
and national expositions--among which may be mentioned the Century of
Progress Exhibition, held in Chicago in 1933, where no less than ten
thousand people, passing through the Hall of Religions, must have viewed
it every day--its replica forming a part of the permanent exhibit of the
Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago; its doors now thronged by
visitors from far and near, whose number, during the period from June,
1932 to October, 1941 has exceeded 130,000 people, representing almost
every country in the world, this great "Silent Teacher" of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah, it may be confidently asserted, has contribu