Shiite pilgrims carrying bottles or jugs swarm noisily through a narrow passageway to a modest yellow-brick house in the Iraqi town of Kufa, the site of Hazrat Ali's well.
Shiites believe the water from the well is blessed, and in post-Saddam Iraq, it is giving joy to the faithful and lining the pockets of roadside merchants selling containers in which to collect the holy liquid.
"They cleansed his body with this water. It is sacred and used to cure the sick," says Ali Hussein Abdelkader, who helps to manage the site in Kufa, 160 kilometras (100 miles) south of Baghdad and near the holy Shiite city of Najaf.
Many Iraqi Shiites, long oppressed by Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime, have also made the journey to Kufa, joining foreign pilgrims who come here to pledge their allegiance to Ali.
"This is the place where Hazrat Ali's body was cleansed and where he died, three days after being stabbed" in the nearby mosque, Abdelkader explains.
Crowds of visitors, their eyes brimming with tears, mass around a kiosk, the counter of which was cluttered with Iranian bank notes.
The crush becomes almost unbearable as the faithful press into the corridors leading to the well.
Employees stationed at the well take bottles from the pilgrims, who shove each other in order to be the first to walk away with the precious liquid. Some throw patience to the wind, drinking it or dousing themselves immediately.
"We bring all the sick here. When we come to see the commander of the believers, he cures us," says Hamida Karim as she smokes a cigarette outside the house, waiting for her family members to emerge.
"We didn't bring a bottle this time because we don't know anyone who is sick," explains Karim, who hails from Babylon province south of Baghdad. She says she does not know how old she is, but her face is lined with age.
Dhia Hadi, a 34-year-old driver and native of the Kufa area, says he prefers to let his wife handle the delicate task of retrieving the holy water "because most of the visitors are women".
"My daughter was diagnosed with a heart problem. We bathed her in this water and two years ago, she was cured," explains Hadi, his small son by his side.
"Every time we come here, we take water to give to our neighbours," he adds.
Abdelkader, who was imprisoned under Saddam for allegedly belonging to the Shiite party Ad-Dawa, says that under the former dictator "the intelligence services administered the site and sold the water."
Now, both the water and the profits flow directly to the shitters.
"Thanks be to God, we are rid of Saddam!" says 24-year-old Haidar Jaber, one of the numerous merchants selling plastic containers and watches outside the site. "Before, there were only two or three vendors."
Pilgrims can buy gallon-sized (four-litre) containers for 750 dinars (50 cents) or smaller receptacles priced at 250 dinars. Children sell small bottles for 50 dinars.
"The Iranians are buying the most," he adds.
Even if the water is believed to have magical healing powers, the Shiites say faith ultimately determines its effectiveness.
"It will heal only those who believe," Hadi muses.
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