The Kaaba in Mecca

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 795.

The Kaaba is a cuboid-shaped building in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the most sacred site in Islam.

The building has a mosque (Masjid) built around it, the Masjid al-Haram. All Muslims around the world are supposed to face the Kaaba duringprayers, no matter where they are. From any given point in the world, the direction facing the Kaaba is called the Qibla.

One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in his or her lifetime if able to do so. Multiple parts of the Hajj require pilgrims to walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction (as viewed from above). Thiscircumambulation, the Tawaf, is also performed by pilgrims during the Umrah (lesser pilgrimage).^[1] However, the most dramatic times are during the Hajj, when about 6 million pilgrims gather to circle the building on the same day.

The Kaaba is located inside the Masjid al-Ḥarām in the center of Mecca. It is a cuboid-shape structure which is made of granite quarried from nearby hills.

Inside the Kaaba, the floor is made of marble and limestone. The interior walls are clad with marble halfway to the roof. The marble is inset with Qur'anic inscriptions. The wall directly adjacent to the entrance of the Kaaba has six tablets inlaid with inscriptions. The top part of the walls are covered with a green cloth embroidered with gold Qur'anic verses. Caretakers anoint the marble cladding with scented oil used on the Black Stone outside. Three pillars stand inside the Kaaba, with a small altar set between one and the other two. Lamp-like objects (possible cruciblecensers) hang by a rope above the platform. An enclosed staircase leads to the roof.