Qualla: Masjid al-Haram

Masjid al-Haram: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mimar Sinan, the Ottoman chief architect who designed the Süleymaniye in Istanbul and dozens of other masterpieces, was commissioned in 1570 by Sultan Selim II to renovate the Great Mosque of Mecca. He replaced the flat roof with calligraphy-decorated domes. He installed new support columns. Those columns are the oldest surviving parts of today's building. Everything else, every minaret, every expansion wing, every marble tile and escalator and air-conditioned gallery, has been built and rebuilt in the centuries since, through floods and sieges and crane collapses, to make room for the relentlessly growing number of pilgrims who come to circle the Kaaba at its heart.

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

Masjid al-Haram: The Largest Mosque on Earth

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit معتز توفيق اغبارية, CC BY-SA 3.0. Masjid al-Haram is both the largest mosque in the world and, by most accounting, the most expensive building ever constructed. It encloses not just the Kaaba but also the Well of Zamzam, the Maqam Ibrahim (a stone Muslims believe carries the footprints of Abraham from when he sto...

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Image: معتز توفيق اغبارية | CC BY-SA 3.0

Masjid al-Haram: From Abraham to Mimar Sinan

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fadi El Binni of Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0. According to Islamic tradition, Abraham and his son Ismail raised the foundations of the Kaaba on a site Allah had shown him, near the Well of Zamzam. When Muhammad returned victorious to Mecca in 630 CE, he and his companions broke the idols around the Kaaba and dedicated the sa...

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Image: Fadi El Binni of Al Jazeera English | CC BY-SA 2.0

Masjid al-Haram: The Saudi Expansions

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cllane4, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first Saudi renovation ran from 1955 to 1976. Four more minarets went up, the Mas'a gallery connecting Safa and Marwa was enclosed, and many Ottoman features (including Mimar Sinan's original support columns) were demolished. The second expansion, under King Fahd between 1986...

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Image: Cllane4 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Masjid al-Haram: Two Catastrophes

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Omar Chatriwala of Al Jazeera English, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 20 November 1979, extremist insurgents led by Juhayman al-Otaybi seized the Great Mosque, taking thousands of pilgrims as hostages and calling for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family. The siege lasted two weeks. Violence is strictly forbidden within the sanctuary, and the ...

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Image: Omar Chatriwala of Al Jazeera English | CC BY-SA 2.0

Masjid al-Haram: The Cost of Expansion

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Md iet (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The relentless growth of the mosque has come at a cost measured in heritage. Archaeologists estimate that some 95 percent of Mecca's historic buildings, many more than a thousand years old, have been demolished in the last forty years to make room for expansion, hotels, and trans...

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Image: Md iet (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0