The following sites are also in the Akka area:
I have not gazed on verdure for nine years. The country is the world of the soul, the city is the world of bodies.[25]
Realizing Bahá'u'lláh's longing for the country, `Abdu'l-Bahá decided to take him away from the city into the country. He was successful in renting a summer mansion of simple design located about four miles north of the city, and then informed Bahá'u'lláh that the ``palace'' was ready. ``I am a prisoner,'' replied Bahá'u'lláh.[26] But at the insistence of the Muftí of `Akká, Bahá'u'lláh departed from the city for the Mansion of Mazra`ih. Bahá'u'lláh's liberation occurred in June 1877.
`Údí Khammár, who had lavished much wealth on the construction of the mansion during the years of Bahá'u'lláh's incarceration in the barracks, had fled the mansion because of an outbreak of an epidemic disease. The Bahá'ís managed to rent, and later purchase the mansion without much difficulty. `Údí Khammár's commercial successes had enabled him to add extensively to the original structure built earlier in 1821. The mansion was surrounded by a garden and high wall, and the area around the mansion was known as al-Bahjá, Place of Delight. The following inscription in Arabic which `Údí Khammár had placed over the main doorway to welcome visitors is very thought-provoking to many Bahá'ís:
Greetings and salutations rest upon this Mansion which increaseth in splendour through the passage of time. Manifold wonders and marvels are found therein, and pens are baffled in attempting to describe them.[27]
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