60 Fun Facts About Mecca

Mecca lies in which country?

It sits in the Hejaz region of the west, about 70 km inland from the Red Sea coast, in a narrow valley 277 m above sea level.

Which nearby city serves as Mecca's principal gateway and port on the Red Sea?

Caliph Uthman designated it the main port for pilgrims in 647 CE; today its King Abdulaziz airport handles Hajj traffic.

What does the Arabic word 'Kaaba' literally mean?

Muslims also call it Baytullah, the House of God, and it fixes the direction of prayer for the entire faith.

According to Islamic tradition, Ibrahim rebuilt the Kaaba together with which son?

Ibrahim had left the boy and his mother in the valley; some men of the Yemeni Jurhum tribe reportedly helped with the building.

The direction of prayer, towards the Kaaba, is called what?

Before a revelation in Medina, Muhammad and his followers had prayed facing Jerusalem.

Which name does the Quran use for Mecca in the verse calling it the site of the first house of worship?

Another Quranic name is Umm al-Qura, 'Mother of all Settlements', which is also the name of the city's only university.

Ptolemy's 2nd-century list of Arabian cities includes which name long identified with Mecca?

The identification is now disputed; historian Patricia Crone argued Ptolemy's 'Moka' in Arabia Petraea was a different place.

Which tribe ruled Mecca and controlled the Kaaba's shrine at the time of Muhammad's birth?

Muhammad was born into its Banu Hashim clan; the tribe's chief idol, Hubal, stood in the Kaaba until the conquest of 630.

The 'Year of the Elephant', about 570, is named for the failed attack on Mecca by which ruler?

Tradition says his lead elephant Mahmud refused to cross into the city and the army was destroyed by birds carrying pebbles.

The Cave of Hira, where the Quran was first revealed, is on which mountain outside Mecca?

Its name means Mountain of Light; the mountain is only about 640 m high but the climb takes one to two hours.

Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Yathrib in 622, the starting point of the Islamic calendar, is known as what?

Yathrib was later renamed Medina; the date equates to 16 July 622 in the Julian calendar.

Which 628 treaty let Muhammad's followers make pilgrimage the next year and preceded the conquest of Mecca?

Its breach by allies of the Meccans in 630 gave Muhammad the pretext to march on the city.

Before Islam, roughly how many pagan idols is the Kaaba said to have housed?

Possibly one for each day of the year; the chief among them was Hubal.

According to Ibn Battuta, images of which two figures were among those in the pre-Islamic Kaaba?

Other traditions say Muhammad spared paintings of Isa and Maryam while destroying the rest.

The Black Stone is set into which corner of the Kaaba?

Tradition says Muhammad, aged 35, settled a clan dispute by having every leader hold a cloth to carry the stone before he set it himself.

What is often claimed about the Black Stone's origin, though it has never been analysed?

It is now in fragments held by a silver frame after being smashed by a catapult stone during the Umayyad siege of 683.

Which sect sacked Mecca in 930 and carried the Black Stone off to al-Ahsa?

They kept it until 951, when they returned it in exchange for a deal with Baghdad to stop attacking pilgrim caravans.

The Zamzam Well lies about how far east of the Kaaba?

Tradition holds it sprang up to save a mother and her infant son in the desert, and was rediscovered by Muhammad's grandfather Abd al-Muttalib.

The cloth covering the Kaaba, replaced each year on the Day of Arafah, is called what?

The Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi began the annual replacement in 777 after realising the accumulated layers might crush the building.

Which caliph first sent the Kaaba's covering from Egypt, white linen woven by Coptic Christians?

Egypt remained the source of the cloth for centuries; the caliph Mu'awiya later switched to silk.

The Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. In which month of the Islamic calendar does it take place?

The rites run from the 8th to the 12th or 13th of the twelfth and last month, so the Gregorian date shifts about eleven days earlier each year.

How many times do pilgrims walk counter-clockwise around the Kaaba in the tawaf?

The same number governs the walk between Safa and Marwa and the pebbles thrown at each pillar in Mina.

The walk between the hills of Safa and Marwa commemorates whose desperate search for water?

The hills are about 450 m apart, so the full set of crossings adds up to roughly 3.15 km.

The white seamless garments and ritual purity a pilgrim enters before the Hajj are called what?

Men wear two unsewn white cloths; nail-clipping, perfume, hunting and marriage are all forbidden while in the state.

The vigil on the plain of Arafat, on the 9th day of the pilgrimage month, is considered what?

The granodiorite hill, about 20 km southeast of the city, is where tradition places Muhammad's Farewell Sermon.

Mount Arafat's alternative name, Jabal ar-Rahmah, means what?

Some Muslims believe it is where Adam and Eve were reunited and forgiven after the Fall; a pillar marks the spot.

Mina, the valley 8 km southeast of Mecca where pilgrims sleep during the Hajj, is nicknamed what?

With room for up to 3 million people it has been called the largest tent city in the world.

The Stoning of the Devil at Mina re-enacts an episode from the life of which prophet?

He is said to have stoned Satan for tempting him to disobey God's command to sacrifice his son.

What is the minimum number of pebbles a pilgrim needs to complete the stoning ritual?

The largest pillar alone is pelted on Eid al-Adha, then all three walls on each of the next two days.

The multi-level Jamaraat Bridge, from which the pillars are pelted, was first built in which year?

One fire-safety expert noted it could move 500,000 people an hour, the largest-ever football crowd every 24 minutes.

How many deaths did Saudi Arabia officially report in the 2015 Mina crowd crush?

The largest number of victims were Iranian, and the disaster sharply worsened Saudi-Iranian relations.

Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice that ends the Hajj, falls on which day of the pilgrimage month?

Celebrations continue through the three following Tashreeq days.

The 'lesser pilgrimage' to Mecca that can be made at any time of year is called what?

It does not discharge the duty of Hajj, which every able Muslim must still perform once in a lifetime.

Which Ottoman sultan commissioned the architect Mimar Sinan to renovate the Great Mosque in 1570?

Sinan added a stone arcade and three minarets; the mosque then went almost unchanged for three centuries.

What title does the Saudi king hold in relation to Mecca and Medina?

The Great Mosque is described as the largest mosque and most expensive building in the world.

The Sharifs who ruled Mecca from about 967 to 1925 claimed descent from whom?

The last Sharif, Hussein bin Ali, launched the Arab Revolt in 1916 and briefly ruled the Kingdom of Hejaz.

Mecca was incorporated into the Saudi state after its capture by Ibn Saud's forces in which year?

The Sharif of Mecca was overthrown; the Saudi conquest of the Hejaz was complete by 1925.

Who led the armed seizure of the Grand Mosque in November 1979?

His followers proclaimed one of their number the Mahdi; the siege lasted two weeks and ended with French GIGN help and public beheadings.

Which country's special forces provided assistance and tear gas to end the 1979 Grand Mosque siege?

Khomeini falsely blamed the seizure on the US and Israel, sparking anti-American riots across the Muslim world.

Which English explorer made the Hajj in 1853 in disguise and later translated the Arabian Nights?

He had himself circumcised to reduce the risk of discovery; the first recorded non-Muslim visitor was Ludovico di Varthema in 1503.

Under Saudi law, who is prohibited from entering Mecca?

The prohibition extends to Ahmadis; using fraudulent documents to enter can bring arrest and prosecution.

The central tower of the Clock Towers complex beside the Great Mosque stands how tall?

It is the world's fourth-tallest building and, per Guinness, the tallest clock tower, with the largest clock faces anywhere.

Demolition of which Ottoman-era structure for the Clock Towers drew Turkish protest in 2002?

The 18th-century citadel had stood on a hill overlooking the Grand Mosque.

Roughly what share of Mecca's historic buildings have reportedly been demolished since 1985?

Most were over a thousand years old, cleared to make way for hotels and mosque expansions.

The Haramain High Speed Railway, opened in 2018, links Mecca and Medina at what top service speed?

The 449-km line along the coast cut the journey between the two holy cities to under two hours.

Between 1830 and 1930, how many times did cholera break out among pilgrims in Mecca?

The disease travelled with returning pilgrims and helped trigger international quarantine conventions.

At what elevation above sea level does Mecca sit, one of the lowest cities in the Hejaz?

Some peaks within the city reach 1,000 m, and the centre lies in a corridor between mountains called the Hollow of Mecca.

By metropolitan population, where did Mecca rank among Saudi Arabia's cities in 2022?

Its 2.4 million people trail only Riyadh and Jeddah, and the Hajj almost triples the population for a week.

The Quranic name for Mecca, Umm al-Qura, means what?

The city has also been known historically as Tihamah, and the Quran elsewhere calls it Bakkah.

Mecca served as the capital of only one Islamic state. Which was it?

Ali chose Kufa, the Umayyads Damascus and the Abbasids Baghdad, shifting the political centre away from the holy city.

Which Ottoman sultan's 1629 renovation of the Great Mosque raised its minaret count to seven?

Flash floods in 1621 and 1629 had badly damaged the walls of both the Kaaba and the mosque.

Which company developed and built the Clock Towers hotel complex beside the Great Mosque?

Construction of the seven-skyscraper, government-owned complex cost around US$15 billion.

How wide is each of the four clock faces on the Clock Towers, the largest in the world?

Each face is lit by two million LEDs and the clock is visible from 25 kilometres away.

Which chain was the original operator of the five-star hotel in the tallest Clock Tower?

The tower was planned at 734 metres in 2006 before the final height was set at 601 metres.

The Hejaz mountain strip where Mecca lies separates the Red Sea from which desert?

The strip is about 200 kilometres wide, and Mecca sits in a valley roughly 70 kilometres east of Jeddah.

By what other name is the Hijr Ismail, the low semicircular wall beside the Kaaba, known?

It marks an area historically regarded as part of the original footprint of the Kaaba.

Mecca's elevated Al Mashaaer Al Muqaddassah Metro, opened in 2010, runs only when?

The 18.1-kilometre line carries pilgrims to Arafat, Muzdalifah and Mina to ease road congestion.

In which year was Al-Wehda FC, one of Saudi Arabia's oldest sports clubs, founded in Mecca?

Football has replaced impromptu wrestling and foot races as the city's most popular sport.

Which airport primarily serves Mecca for flights from abroad?

It is in Jeddah and has a dedicated Hajj terminal; Mecca East airport is not active.

Under which caliph were covered porticoes first introduced at the Great Mosque of Mecca?

Umar's expansion of 637 had already added 1,500 square metres to cope with growing numbers of worshippers.