The works are proceeding at a steady pace in accordance with the plans and designs prepared for it and according to the timelines and with high engineering and architectural specifications that are in harmony with the Islamic architecture, while preserving as much as possible the most prominent old details of the dome by redrafting it in a new artistic style.
Most of the gilded plates are finished with ribbons and geometric shapes to cover 80 square meters of the dome with 21 kg of pure gold in form of plates. The remaining parts of 200 square meters will be covered with the streaky Kashi Karbala'i inlaid with gold by 30%.
The cladding process is done using a technical method that makes these plates, whether the golden ones or the Kashi Karbala'i gain adhesion strength between each other and with the dome's building, making them as one piece, which is the same method used by the technical and engineering staff of the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine in many projects inside and outside the holy shrine.
It is worth mentioning that the Honorable Secretariat of the Great Sahla Masjid has entrusted the design and covering the Dome of Maqam of Imam al-Mahdi (may Allah hasten his holy reappearance) to the al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine, in recognition and appreciation of the efforts of the holy shrine's staff who are Iraqi competencies specialized in this kind of professional craftsmanship, which was for many years, implemented only by foreign companies. The al-Abbas's (p) holy shrine has been able to establish workshops and factories that are integrated and specialized in the work of gilding in many painting ways, hot and cold enamel painting workshops and factories of shrines, grids, Muqarnas, digging, sculpture, etc.