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City guide · Saudi Arabia
Mecca is closed to non-Muslims, and the prohibition covers the whole haram area rather than the Great Mosque alone, so that is the first thing to settle before planning anything else. For Muslims the city is the destination itself: the Masjid al-Haram with the Kaaba at its centre, the direction every prayer in the world faces. It lies in a narrow valley 277 m above sea level, 70 km inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, and its metropolitan population of 2.4 million more than triples during the Hajj. Over 19.3 million international visitors arrived in 2024.
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Al Masjid Al Haram is the mosque built around the Kaaba in the centre of Makkah, and it is the largest mosque in the world by area and by the number of people it holds.
The Kaaba is the cube-shaped building at the centre of Al Masjid Al Haram in Makkah, and it is the qiblah, the direction every Muslim in the world faces in prayer.
Jabal al-Nour, the Mountain of Light, is a bare rock peak on the north-eastern side of Mecca, a little over five kilometres from Al-Masjid al-Haram.
The Cave of Hira is a cleft in the rock near the top of Jabal al-Nour, the mountain that rises northeast of central Makkah.
The Plain of Arafat lies about 23 kilometres east of the Grand Mosque on the road between Makkah and Taif.
Jabal Thawr is a bare rock mountain on the southern edge of Makkah, rising above the ground south of the Misfalah district, and people climb it for one thing: the cave near its top, Ghar Thawr.
The Clock Tower Museum occupies the ninth floor of the Makkah Clock Tower, the central spire of the Abraj Al-Bait complex, which the operator also names as the King Abdulaziz Endowment for the Two Holy Mosques and describes as one…
Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.
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