The heart of every journey: the Sacred Mosque around the Kaaba, the qibla of every Muslim prayer and the place of Tawaf and Sa'i.
Why it matters
A prayer in Masjid al-Haram is worth more than a hundred thousand prayers elsewhere, according to the hadith reported by Ibn Majah and Ahmad. Every rite of Umrah is performed here.
Read the history
The Qur’an describes the Kaaba as the first House established for mankind (Al Imran 3:96). Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them) raised its foundations, as the Qur’an recounts in Surah al-Baqarah (2:127), and Ibrahim called people to its pilgrimage.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cleansed it of idols after the conquest of Makkah in 8 AH. The mosque around it has been expanded many times since, most recently in the Saudi expansions that now hold well over a million worshippers, with the Mas’a of Safa and Marwa enclosed inside the building.