Mecca - Masjid al-Haram

Hello again, readers!

Let's take a look at Masjid al-Haram. This Muslim Mosque, first completed in 638 CE, is built around the Kaaba, a huge granite cube. According to Islamic legend, the Kaaba was originally built by the angels of Allah before mankind was created. Subsequent legendary humans have supposedly rebuilt it many times over the years. Adam, the same from the Old Testament, was, according to tradition, the first to rebuild it after the angels. Similar icons from the Old Testament have been said to have rebuilt it as well, including Abraham and his son. Interestingly, it is this Kaaba that Muslims throughout the world worship towards and direct their prayers towards. It is also the object millions of people flock to every year, as required by their religion.

Although the mosque has been built around the Kaaba, it is the mosque itself that is a huge architectural achievement. Designed to accommodate more than 4 million people at one time, the inside and outside together total 356,800 sq. meters, or a staggering 221 square miles! Obviously, the mosque has grown throughout history, as the number of worshipers continually increases. There have been several major renovations, including one on-going project, aiming to further increase the amount of pilgrims it can support. The vast majority of the recent construction work has gone to expanding the capacity of the mosque, leaving much of the main buildings and walls the same for several centuries now.

The general style is reminiscent of the traditional Islamic style of building. You will almost certainly recognize the style of such famous buildings as the Taj Mahal, while other more obscure but equally grandiose mosques continue to employ this Islamic style. I hope you've learned something and gotten a chance to appreciate the enormous scale of some of these buildings, and the amount of architectural planning, engineering, and labor that went into building these magnificent structures.