Photographs & Information about Mecca / Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Mecca (Makkah in Arabic) is the center of the Islamic world and is in the Sirat Mountains of western Saudi Arabia.

Mecca 1910

The black and white almost square photograph shows a building that starts somewhere off to the bottom right of the picture. It is rectangular, white, has two stories with rounded arch openings on both levels and the roof is flat. At the end of the building and in the middle of the image is the courtyard of the Great Mosque. There are two towers on either side of the Kaaba, black cube structure in the middle. The background is filled with buildings of various sizes.

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This photograph was taken in 1910 and shows the Great Mosque and Kaaba with the city of Mecca in the background.

Mecca Today

In the middle of the almost square colored photograph is the Grand Mosque which rectangular in shape with rounded corners. In the upper half of the Mosque is the Kabaa, a square black building, and has a floor lower than the rest of the Mosque. In the lower half of the Mosque is 3 red domed buildings and the rest of the area is filled with thousands of people. More people are surrounding the Mosque and fill the lower corner of the image. Around the Mosque are 8 tall towers known as minarets and behind the Grand Mosque you can see buildings that are in the city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

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The picture above shows the Great Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia crowded with people, inside and out.

Kaaba in the 1960s

The picture is black and white and was taken after a heavy rain storm. The entire area is flooded with water about knee depth in some areas and in other areas it appears the water is waist deep. The Kabaa (large square building) is in the middle of the picture and is covered by a black cloth with an intricate band of silver around the middle. About a dozen men are walking around the area. Around the outside of the picture are square plain looking two story buildings. On the left and in the front is a tower of black rods that seems to narrower at the top. The rods that go around the tower are perhaps 2 feet apart and held together by rods on the four corners.

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This photograph of Mecca from the 1960s and shows a flooded Great Mosque and Kaaba (the large black structure in the middle).

Flooded Street

The black and white photo is rectangular in shape. The left hand side is lined with large columns connected with arches along the top, this is the outside of the Great Mosque. On the right side of the picture is a building with men standing on a balcony that has cement up to their mid-chest level and they are resting their arms on it as they look down at the street below. The street is flooded with many people standing around a car that is almost submerged under water.

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This picture, also from the 1960s, shows the outside columns of the Great Mosque and a flooded street in Mecca.

Great Mosque

The black and white photo is rectangular in shape. A little to the right of the center of the photograph is a large black square structure, the Kaaba, and in front of that is a smaller light colored building. Around the middle of the photo are the columns of the Great Mosque. Within the columns is the interior of the Great Mosque and it is completely flooded with about 2 feet of water. Scattered throughout the interior are many men standing around, mostly in large groups. In the background of the photo are the tall buildings, some look to be about 10 floors high, outside the Great Mosque.

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This image shows the flooded interior of the Great Mosque and the Kaaba after a heavy rain in the 1960s.

Photos Submitted by: Abdulrhman Al-Hussaen

According to an ancient Arabian legend, when Adam and Eve were cast from Paradise they fell to different parts of the earth; Adam on a mountain on the island of Serendip, or Sri Lanka, and Eve in Arabia, on the border of the Red Sea near the port of Jeddah. For two hundred years Adam and Eve wandered separate and lonely about the earth. Finally, in consideration of their penitence and wretchedness, God permitted them to come together again on Mt. Arafat, near the present city of Mecca (previously called Becca or Bakkah, meaning narrow valley). Adam is said to have died and been buried in Mecca and Eve in Jeddah by the sea which still bears her name, Jiddah, meaning maternal ancestor in Arabic.

This is a pre-Islamic legend and the Quran says nothing whatsoever of Adam's connection with Mecca.

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One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travelers Writing About the Muslim Pilgrimage book cover

Mecca and Muhammad: A Judaic Christian Documentation of the Islamic Faith by Marlowe Stortroen and Brett Stortroen

The pilgrimage to Mecca, or the Hajj, is a journey all Muslims should attempt at least once in his or her life. Its purpose is to detach human beings from their homes and, by bringing them to Islam's birthplace, to emphasize the equality of all people before God. One Thousand Roads to Mecca is collection of more than 20 accounts of the Hajj spanning ten centuries. They travel by boat and camel, on foot and horseback and, most recently, by airplane. Many suffered all the hardships and dangers attached to a long pilgrimage of months or even years.

Saudi Arabian Trivia

Muhammad was born in approximately 570-571AD in Mecca and died in 632AD at the age of sixty-three. In twenty-three years he established a religion and social order that is still dominant in the Arab world today.

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To the best of my knowledge the copyright of the items in this Photo Gallery is held by the person submitting the item, are in public domain or do not have a copyright. If you hold the copyright to an item here and it was not submitted by you please contact me either at the Email address or the PO Box address found above. Jane L. Smith

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Mecca / Makkah