The museum has an impressive collection of Islamic artifacts that all tell interesting tales of Mecca and its rich culture.
Al-Zaher Palace Museum in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, is a historical museum that exhibits the history of Makkah and various archaeological collections for different periods of Islamic history in the region. It has an area of 2,700 m2, covering two storeys and the surrounding gardens. It was built in an Islamic architectural style with cut and carved stone.
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This is the cemetery in which companions and relatives of Prophet Muhammed are buried, including his first wife, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great great-grandfather.
These were the two small hills now well transformed into long galleries which are well-constructed with marble floor and equipped with air-conditions. Muslim traditions held that Hagar, wife of Abraham, ran back and forth between these two hills in search of water of her son Ismail. It is believed that she first climbed the hill of Al-Safa and later Al-Marwah. Today Muslim perform ritual walking here called Sa'ee involves walking between the two hills seven times. Each trip requires approximately 300 m of walking and roughly 2.1 km in total.
At the center of the grand mosque is the Kaaba, which according to Muslim traditions was built by the Prophet Abraham and his son, the Prophet Ishmael. Covered in black cloth, it is circled seven times by Muslim pilgrims and it is toward the Kaaba that Muslims face in the direction while performing Islamic prayers (Salat). The Black Stone set intact into the Kaaba's eastern cornerstone wall by Muhammad himself is an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. Many Muslim pilgrims while doing Tawaf try to kiss and touch the sacred stone; however, this usually requires a lot of effort because of crowding.
Sacred Mosque
The holiest site in Mecca and Islam is Grand Mosque. The massive mosque is the world's largest mosque and can accommodate up to 2 million people at once. The mosque has been continuously expanded and still going through major expansion and renovation. This mosque is the focal point of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages.
Science museum located in the Abraj Al-Bait towers.
The only place in Saudi Arabia where Kiswa is traditionally made to mark the beginning of Hajj.