Apia · WS

Baha'i House Of Worship Samoa

On a hillside at Tiapapata, about a 15-minute drive from Apia, stands the Bahá'í House of Worship of Samoa — one of only eight continental Bahá'í temples in the world and the only one in the Pacific islands, earning it the name the "Mother Temple of the Pacific." Its gleaming nine-sided form, crowned by a white dome, rises out of roughly 20 acres of flower gardens and is open to visitors of every faith. Dedicated in 1984, the temple was designed by the Iranian-born architect Hossein Amanat, whose form draws on the curves of the traditional Samoan fale while symbolising the oneness of humanity through nine identical entrances. Inside, a main hall seats 500 people, ringed by a cantilevered mezzanine for another 200, beneath a 28-metre dome inset with mirrored glass.