Although the Saudi government has made many efforts to maintain the holy sites and control crowds, there have been disasters over the years, including stampedes and bombings that have cost the lives of many pilgrims. The threat to Mecca as a sacred place is modern residential and commercial development. New construction is causing the destruction of historic Islamic buildings and is commercializing the holy city. Mecca has not just one, but many hundreds of sites that are important to Muslims around the world.
But these sites are being bulldozed for large apartment buildings and commerical complexes that the leadership of the city hopes will house and cater to a growing number of affluent pilgrims. In , King Abdullah launched six massive new development projects near the Grand Mosque, including the Jabal Omar residential towers, which include five-star hotels, commercial centers and prayer facilities for , worshippers.
There has been no official protection of historic sites because the ruling family and its religious court are dominated by Wahhabists—those who follow the strict teachings of Ibn Wahhab, one of the spiritual and political founders of the Kingdom of Saud. However, Wahhabism is just one sect in the Islamic faith, so many other Muslims around the world feel that such sites should be preserved, not to idolize them but to protect a rich Islamic heritage.
Sami Angawi, an architecture expert who runs the Amar Center for Architectural Heritage in nearby Jeddah and who is a descendant of the prophet Muhammed, became well known in his fight to preserve historic religious sites around the city.
He argues that developers are harming the sacred nature of the city in order to turn a profit, capitalizing on the enormous number of pilgrims who flood the city each year during Hajj. His only recourse to protect sites, such as the presumed home of Muhammed, is to refuse to reveal their locations to the government, because he fears the sites would then be targeted for demolition. The environmental consequences of this massive, new development have not been publicly assessed.
Saudi Arabia is largely a fragile desert environment where population increase and modernization of buildings has led to a large increase in energy consumption, as well as air and water pollution.
In earlier times, Arabians maintained a balance between their use of resources and conservation of the environment. The discovery of oil in the early 20th century brought about rapid changes in the lifestyles and attitudes of Arabians to the desert. The population boom has led to growing demand for meat and dwindling water supplies—which in turn cause overgrazing by cattle in the delicate desert landscape. As Saudi Arabia has developed during the past century, greater numbers of Saudis and foreign workers have moved to urban industrialized areas, including Mecca.
Rural area have been primarily used for resource exploitation and as repositories for industrial waste, leading to the destruction of native flora and fauna. As the urban population continues to swell, water and sewage infrastructure has not been adequately expanded and modernized, which has resulted in frequent seepage of sewage. Many Saudis are not taught about the effects of industrialization and urbanization on the environment.
In general, popular and government attitudes regard protection of the environment as a costly policy that will adversely affect the economy, which is heavily dependent on petroleum production and export.
With world oil demand ever on the rise, the volume of oil being shipped through pipelines and via tankers is increasing and the chance of spills and accidents continues to grow. Despite its limited power, the Amar Center has been working to protect the Islamic architectural richness of Mecca, particularly lesser-known sacred sites, by advocating for responsible development and by opposing large developers. Saudi Arabia is also a signatory to many international environmental accords. According to the World Bank, the country will have to invest substantial capital in the environmental sector in coming years in order to become more sustainable.
Although the government appears to have begun addressing many environmental challenges, there are few strong, influential voices in the royal family affirming the importance of these issues and there is little that Saudis or outsiders can do to demand environmental assessments of new development or to prevent irresponsible development.
Entering the great Mosque in Mecca, the pilgrim first walks seven times around the Ka'ba shrine in a counterclockwise direction; this ritual is called turning, or tawaf. Next, entering into the shrine, the pilgrim kisses the sacred stone. The stone is mounted in a silver frame in the wall, four feet above the ground, in the southeast corner of the shrine.
It is of an oval shape about twelve inches in diameter, composed of seven small stones possibly basalt of different sizes and shapes joined together with cement. Legend tells that the stone al-Hajaru al-Aswad, the 'Black Stone' was originally white but became gradually darkened by the kisses of sinful mortals some traditions say by the sins of 'offsprings of Adam'.
During the next few days the pilgrim walks a ritualized route to other sacred places in the Mecca vicinity Mina, Muzdalifah, Arafat, the Mount of Mercy and Mt. Namira and returns to the Ka'ba on the final day the word Hajj probably derives from an old Semitic root meaning 'to go around, to go in a circle'. The plain of Arafat where millions of pilgrims assemble in a vast congregation symbolizes the plain of Mahshar or Resurrection where everyone will stand before God on the Day of Judgement.
In the middle of Arafat stands Jabal al-Rahmah or the Mount of Mercy where the last verses of the Koran were revealed and where one of the famous farewell addresses of the Prophet was delivered. It is here that the alchemy of union between various aspects of human nature takes place and where men and women regain their primordial spiritual wholeness, for it was here that Adam and Eve found each other again after their fall to earth from Paradise.
At Mina, where the Prophet delivered his last words during his final pilgrimage, pilgrims cast stones against three large stone pillars representing Satan al-Shaytan as a symbol of the eternal battle that must be waged against the demons within.
Finally there is the sacrifice of an animal, a sheep or a camel, in emulation of Abraham's preparation to sacrifice his son Ishmael. Once a believer has made the pilgrimage to Mecca men may add the title al-Hajji to their name, hajjiyah for females. In different Islamic countries returning pilgrims will use a variety of signs to indicate they have made the Hajj; these include painting pictures of the Ka'ba and the pilgrim's means of transportation to the shrine upon the walls of their homes, painting the entrance doorway of the house bright green, and wearing hats or scarves of green color.
A so-called Minor Pilgrimage, known as the Umra, contains some but not all of the rites of the Hajj and may be performed at any time of the year. The area around the Ka'ba was enclosed by a wall in to create a defined space for the tawaf ritual of circumambulation.
In the mosque was further enlarged and ornamented with numerous mosaic and marble decorations. In the Umayyad caliph Al-Walid placed a wooden roof upon marble columns to protect the arcades of the mosque, and between and the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur carried out further enlargements, including the first minaret. During the next years numerous modifications were carried out although no major alterations to the form of the building occurred until the Ottoman period in the 16th century in the 10th century the Black Stone was actually stolen for a period of twenty-one years by the Carmathians.
Large-scale renovations and remodeling was undertaken in during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Sulayman the Magnificent, who rebuilt the minarets and replaced the wooden roofs of the arcades with stone domes.
The next major rebuilding of the mosque occurred in the 20th century under the direction of the Saudi royal family and resulted in the Mecca mosque becoming the largest in the world. The Ka'ba today stands in the midst of an open courtyard known as the al-masjid al-haram, the 'sanctuary'. The cubical the word Ka'ba means "cube" , flat-roofed building rises fifty feet from a narrow marble base on mortared bases of a local blue-gray stone.
Its dimensions are not exactly cubical: the northeastern and southwestern walls are forty feet long, while the other two walls are five feet shorter 12 meters long, 10 meters broad, 16 meters high.
The structure's corners, rather than the walls, are oriented toward the compass points. The east and west walls are aligned to the sunrise at the summer solstice and sunset at the winter solstice. The south wall is directed to the rising of the bright star Canopus.
The northeastern wall has the only door of the building, about seven feet above the ground level. Inside is an empty room with a marble floor and three wooden pillars supporting the roof. There are some inscriptions on the walls, hanging votive lamps, and a ladder leading up to the roof. The entire Ka'ba structure is draped with a black silk covering, called a kiswa, upon which passages from the Koran are embroidered in gold.
The kiswa is renewed every year and the old kiswah is cut up and distributed so as to allow the barakah of the ka'ba to emanate among those to whom the pieces of the cloth are given.
During the early centuries of Islamic history the kiswah was made in Egypt and carried with great ceremony to Mecca but now it is fashioned near the holy city itself. Opposite the northwestern wall of the Ka'ba is an area of special sanctity called the Hijr, which Muslim tradition identifies as the burial place of Hagar and Ishmael and here, too, Ishmael had been promised by God that a gate into heaven would be opened for him.
In Muhammad's time, the Hijr was a place used for discussion, prayer and, significantly, for sleep. The sleepers in the Hijr appear to have gone there specifically to have dreams of divine content: Muhammad's grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, was inspired to discover the Zamzam well while sleeping there; the mother of the Prophet had a vision of her son's greatness; and at the Hijr Muhammed himself was visited by Gabriel before beginning his miraculous Night Journey to Jerusalem.
Ringed by seven towering minarets and sixty-four gates, this truly monumental building has , yards of floor space, is capable of holding more than 1. The sa'y, or ritual walk between the hills of Safa and Marwa, celebrating the rapid movement of Hagar and her son Ishmael in search of water and being an integral part of the Hajj rituals, is understood to represent man's quest in this world for the life-bestowing bounties of God.
It is interesting to note that prior to the age of the European world explorations, the pilgrimage to Mecca was the single largest expression of human mobility. As the religion of Islam rapidly spread across the world from Indonesia and China in the Far East to Spain, Morocco and West Africa in the west, ever increasing numbers of pilgrims made the long, and often dangerous, journey to Mecca.
Others spent months in camel caravans slowly crossing great tracts of land. The most important pilgrimage caravans were the Egyptian, the Syrian, the Maghribi the trans-Saharan route , the Sudanese the sub-Saharan, savanna route , and those from Iraq and Persia. Forbidden to persons not of the Muslim faith, Mecca came to symbolize for Europeans the secrets and mysteries of the orient, and as such became a magnet for explorers and adventurers.
A few of these daring travelers, such as John Lewis Burckhardt from Switzerland who, in , was also the first European to visit the ruins of Petra and Sir Richard Burton from Great Britain were able to convincingly impersonate Muslim pilgrims, gain entrance to Mecca, and write wonderfully of the holy city upon their return to Europe.
Other explorers were neither so lucky nor divinely guided; many of them disappeared or were caught and sold into slavery. To this day, Mecca remains strictly closed for persons not of the Muslim faith. Nowadays approximately 2,, people perform the Hajj each year, and this pilgrimage serves as a unifying force in Islam by bringing together followers from diverse countries and language groups.
In a certain sense, however, Mecca is said to be visited by all devout and practicing Muslims every day. This is because five times each day three times in the Shi'a sect millions upon millions of believers perform their prayers bowing and prostrating in a specific sequence of movements in the direction of Mecca. Wherever the place of prayer - in a mosque, a remote place in the wilderness or the interior of a home - Muslims face towards Mecca and are united to the Ka'ba by an invisible line of direction called the qibla.
Readers interested in more detailed information about Mecca and the great Muslim pilgrimage will enjoy the excellent writings of Michael Wolfe and F. It now stands some 60 feet high and each side is approximately 60 feet in length.
The Kaaba is the focal point around which Masjid Al-Haram was built. Its four walls are covered with a black curtain called the Kiswah that reaches to the ground and is fastened to the Shadharwan with copper rings. The door of the Kaaba is about seven feet from about the ground and is located at the south-east wall.
There are pillars inside the Kaaba that support the roof. The interior is furnished with many gold and silver lamps. There are several bands of inscriptions on the inner walls on the Kaaba that record the many repairs that were done in the past.
The Kaaba is the holy shrine dedicated to the worship of Allah the Glorified and Exalted built by both Prophet Abraham peace be upon him and Prophet Ismail peace be upon him.
There are some who believe that the founder of the Kaaba was either the Angels or Prophet Adam peace be upon him. However, the Holy Quran provides irrefutable evidence that the founders of the Kaaba were Prophet Abraham peace be upon him and Prophet Ismail peace be upon him.
The Kaaba has several names. Bayt Al-Haram is a third name meaning the Honorable House. However, it is only a figure of speech and does not mean that Allah lives inside the Kaaba. It was brought from Paradise and presented to Prophet Abraham peace be upon him by the Archangel Gabriel to be placed in the Kaaba. Prophet Muhammad had the honor of placing the Black Stone back in the Kaaba when it was rebuilt by the Quraysh.
Since then it has been broken into a number of fragments and is now cemented into a silver frame in the side of the Kaaba. Its physical appearance is that of a fragmented dark rock, polished smooth by the hands of millions of pilgrims. Muslims try to kiss the Black Stone because the Prophet Muhammad used to do so.
The circumambulation of the Kaaba, known as Tawaf, performed during Umrah and Hajj begins and ends at the Black Stone. The Station of Abraham Maqam Al-Ibrahim refers to the large stone block that was brought by Prophet Ismail peace be upon him to his father Prophet Abraham peace be upon him to stand on while building the upper walls of the Kaaba.
Allah the Glorified and Exalted made this large stone block one which he peace be upon him stood soft where his footprints are visible. The greatest virtue of the Station of Abraham is that Allah the Glorified and Exalted commanded Muslims to perform prayers near it after Tawaf. For centuries, the Station of Abraham was preserved in a silver box that was housed in a large domed hall. However, it was demolished in AH since it took to much space.
The Station of Abraham was fixed in exquisite crystal and encased in a sturdy steel cage. The casing was then mounted on a marble platform and a dome was used to cover it that allows the footprints to clearly be seen. The Zamzam Spring later converted into a well holds extreme religious significance because of the miracle of its origin.
In her desperate search for water, Hajar ran seven times back and forth in the scorching heat between the two hills of Safa and Marwa to provide water for Prophet Ismail peace be upon him , who was dying of thirst. Allah the Glorified and Exalted sent the Angel Gabriel, who scraped the ground, causing the spring to appear. On finding the spring, and fearing that it might run out of water, Hajar enclosed it in sand and stones.
It is hand-excavated and is about Hydro geologically, the well lays within Wadi Ibrahim, which runs through Mecca, and taps groundwater from the wadi alluvium and, to a much lesser extent, the underlying fresh bedrock.
The well is now housed in a basement room, protected by glass panels that allow a clear view of the well. Electric pumps are used to draw water from the well, replacing the ropes and buckets. Visitors are prohibited from entering the Zamzam Well room and surroundings. Outside this room, there was a service area, where cold Zamzam water fountains and dispensing containers were provided for drinking purposes.
Recently, the Al-Haram Tawaf area has been extended to cover the entrance to this area and it is no more accessible to pilgrims. Instead, cold Zamzam water fountains and dispensing containers are now placed at the periphery of Tawaf area. The upper In between lays a 0. Most of the alluvial section of the well is lined with stone masonry except for the uppermost 1 meter, which has a reinforced concrete collar. The weathered rock section is lined with stone and it is this section that provides the main water entry into the well.
Mount Al-Nur is located on the outskirts of Mecca. It has an elevation of 2, feet and covers an area of 5 square kilometers. The famous Hira cave, where Prophet Muhammad had his first revelation, is located on this mountain, hence the name Al-Nur the light after the light of the prophet hood.
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