The Kaaba

The Kaaba. Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Islamic. Pre-Islamic monument; rededicated by Muhammad in 631–632 C.E.; multiple renovations. Granite masonry, covered with silk curtain and calligraphy in gold and silver-wrapped thread.

• Pilgrimage to a holy site is a core principle of almost all faiths. The Kaaba, meaning cube in Arabic, is a square building elegantly draped in a silk and cotton veil. Located in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, it is the holiest shrine in Islam.
• In Islam, Muslims pray five times a day; these prayers were directed towards Mecca and the Kaaba rather than Jerusalem. This direction is marked in all mosques and enables the faithful to know in which direction they should pray.
• Upon arriving in Mecca, pilgrims gather in the courtyard of the Masjid al-Haram around the Kaaba. They then circumambulate and hope to kiss and touch the Black Stone. 
• The Kaaba was a sanctuary in pre-Islamic times. Muslims believe that Abraham—known as Ibrahim in the Islamic tradition—and his son, Ismail, constructed the Kaaba. 
• A door was raised above ground level to protect the shrine from intruders and flood waters.
• Muhammad was driven out of Mecca in 620 CE. Upon his return to Mecca in 629/30 CE, the shrine became the focal point for Muslim worship and pilgrimage. 
• The Kaaba has been modified extensively throughout its history. The area around the Kaaba was expanded in order to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims. 
• Today, the Kaaba is a cubical structure, unlike almost any other religious structure. It is fifteen meters tall and ten and a half meters on each side; its corners roughly align with the cardinal directions.
• The kiswa—the large cloth that covers the Kaaba—used to be sent from Egypt with the hajj caravan but today is made in Saudi Arabia. Until the advent of modern transportation, all pilgrims undertook the often dangerous hajj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca in a large caravan across the desert, leaving major cities in Arabia, Yemen, or Iraq.