It was the last day for Tehran to pay respects to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the truck carrying his coffin could only inch forward.

Surrounding his body were coffins of other family members also killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. The coffin of the ayatollah, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, sat higher, topped with his black turban.

Some in the crowd had climbed atop a large bus stop for a better view.

Security officers surrounded the truck. Like many others in the crowd, they dressed in black.

Some of those present carried dusters, emblems of purity that could also be used to gently direct crowds and traffic.

Others beat their heads and chests, a Shiite Muslim tradition.

The designs around the truck bed recall the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the city where the ayatollah was born and is set to be buried.

A Supreme Leader’s Final Crowds

Photographs by Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times

Ceremonies of mourning are taking place in five cities in Iran and Iraq, Iranian state media has said. Millions of people have already come out to bid farewell to the supreme leader, who was killed in late February.

Those crowds represent a show of strength for the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as of grief for Ayatollah Khamenei, who led it over decades, building Iran’s position as a regional power and brutally crushing dissent. The coffins are decorated with the Iranian flag.

This photograph was taken in Tehran on Monday, where journalists were told the route was curtailed because of the size of the crowd. Instead of traveling more than 17 miles, officials said, the truck would move slowly just from the center of a designated road to the grand public space of Azadi Square.

Tuesday brought ceremonies into Qom, a center of Shiite Muslim study.

Mashhad, on Thursday, will be the last city in the funeral program. The ayatollah is to be buried at the shrine of Imam Reza, one of 12 religious leaders revered by some Shiites as spiritual heirs of the Prophet Muhammad.

The sites chosen to host ceremonies also reflect the position of the supreme leader and the high clerical status associated with it.

Written by Peter Robins. Abdi Latif Dahir, Yeganeh Torbati and Leo Sands contributed reporting.

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