A MODERN EXPERIENCE Since the creation of modern Saudi Arabia, the government has engaged in a building programme in Makkah on a scale unprecedented in any other city of historic and religious signifi cance. Of the new buildings and structures that have appeared in the last 10 years, the most famous by far is the Abraj Al Bait Towers complex. A much touted example of 21st
century Arabian 2
architecture, it towers above the Al Masjid Al Haram complex, with its 601-metre-high centrepiece visible from 17 kilometres away. The Abraj Al Bait is part of the
distinctive green in 1839CE. Two other important fi gures in the early history of Islam, Abu Bakr and Umar, are also buried under the dome. The mosque’s name translates into Mosque of the Prophet and it is the second holiest site in Islam.
MASJID QUBA The fi rst stones of the Quba Mosque are said to have been positioned by the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) himself as soon as he arrived in Al Madinah after his emigration from Makkah. According to Islamic history, the Prophet spent more than 20 nights praying in this mosque while waiting for his son-in-law and the fi rst Muslim, Ali, to arrive from Makkah. The mosque was later completed by his companions. During his stay in Madinah, the Prophet would offer prayers in it every Saturday.
MASJID AL QIBLATAIN The historic importance of this mosque arises from the fact that it was here that Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) changed the direction that Muslims faced while praying. Until then Muslims faced in the direction of Jerusalem but, while leading the prayer one day in the year 624CE, the Prophet turned to face Makkah.
1 Te Ka'aba within Al Masjid Al Haram (the Sacred Mosque)
2 Makkah Clock Royal Tower
3 Al Masjid Al Nabawi (Te Mosque of the Prophet)
King Abdulaziz Endowment Project and was completed in 2011. Its central tower, the second tallest building in the world when it was completed, houses the world’s biggest clock tower. The entire complex, with all its other wings and towers, has the largest fl oor area of any building in the world. The highest residential fl oor
is 450 metres from ground level. Above it rises the clock tower, which itself is half the height of the Eiffel Tower. The four clock faces are half the length of a football pitch in height at 43 metres and the minute hand of the clock is 72 feet long – more than 12 times the height of an average man. Above the clocks rises a 93-metre spire
topped with a 23-metre golden crescent. The bottom of the spire houses the Lunar Observation Center – an observation pod with a control tower inside responsible for sighting the moon on holy days. The prayer calls from the loudspeakers at the base of the tower’s minaret can be heard seven kilometres away while nearly 21,000 lamps illuminate the surroundings up to a distance of 30 kilometres. The tower houses the Makkah
Clock Royal Tower, a Fairmont Hotel, an 858-room fi ve-star property, with many rooms providing a view over the Sacred Mosque. The hotel’s conference centre can accommodate 1,200 people and its ballroom has a capacity for 1,800 guests. Other amenities include two heliports, residences and a fi ve-storey shopping mall with 4,000 shops.
JABAL OMAR The Jabal Omar Development Company is set up to further redevelop Makkah with an estimated investment of US$3.2 billion (SAR12 billion). Forty residential towers are being built by the company to house 160,000 pilgrims, as well as 10 new hotels and a prayer area for 200,000 worshipers. In the city’s central area, an electronic sign board is counting down the days to the opening of the new development, which is one of fi ve giant projects in Makkah city. More than 600 properties have
3
been selected for redevelopment and a raft of new hotels is on the anvil, including two fi ve-star properties offering 935 rooms and six three-star, totalling 1,255 rooms. Several residential buildings are part of the plan to accommodate 100,000 people, 520 restaurants and 4,360 commercial and retail units, as well as air-conditioned plazas for 100,000 worshippers, open courtyards for 120,000 more and a car park for 10,000 vehicles.
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