The dome maintained its first brick structure up to 400 years after its first construction. When construction of Goharshad mosque was finished, a second dome was built on top of the first dome of the holy shrine upon the directive of Goharshad Khatoun. The second dome gave a better view to the dome and the shrine from long distance.
The gold facade of Imam Reza shrine’s dome was built by Shah Tahmasb I. Two of his successors, namely Shah Abbas I and Shah Suleiman, repaired the dome and added inscriptions to it. Shah Tahmasb I, the second Safavid king, had the dome coated with a layer of gold for the first time.
The gilding of the dome was a creative work that had no parallel in the Islamic world until then. Also, considering the position of gold in public beliefs as a symbol of immortality and the position of golden yellow color in mystical beliefs, it was considered as a ritual and symbolic act.
In 1673, a terrible earthquake shook Mashhad, causing heavy damage to the city and the holy shrine. The quake caused cracks in the dome but the damage was fixed two years later and four inscriptions were installed at the bottom line of the dome for the first time upon a directive by Shah Abbas Safavid.
After Russian Cossacks invasion from the north and eruption of clashes with various groups of people who had gathered in the holy shrine, they attacked the crowd and the shrine with cannons and imposed heavy damage on the holy shrine, including the dome, all its porticoes and the Goharshad mosque as well. Cannonballs pierced the holy dome in 18 points, destroying much of the gilded clay.
Damages were fixed during different periods and under various administrations. The repair works had ups and downs as they continued up to the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Finally, in 2020 and with the outbreak of coronavirus, servants of Imam Reza (AS) restored and repaired the dome to perfection in a jihadi action.
This illuminated one-thousand-years-old dome is refurbished every three years by the servants of the shrine.