Mecca Off The Beaten Path Tips by Muarrij Top 5 Page for this destination

The birth place of the Prophet Muhammed PBUH

The Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), the last prophet, was born in Makkah in the year 570 CE.

The place where the Prophet was born is now marked by a disused library. There are no signs to express this historic sight.

To be frank I was a little dissappointed to see how run down the building was. But after talking to some people I learnt that if the government make it too nice and label it, some people may end up praying here, or to the site. This would clearly be against all tradition and in fact would be "Shirk" or "polytheism".

King Fahd's Palace

Its really a shame to see this monstrosity of a Palace overshadowing the beautiful harem.

What's is even more sad is that the custodians knocked down an historic and great mosque. The mosque of Bilal, used to rest at the top of this once humble hill.

They knocked down the mosque after the initial Palace was built due to security reasons.

Notice also that the gate of Masjid al-Haram facing the palace has only one minaret , instead of the usual two. This is because it was blocking the King's view of the Kaabah from his bedroom.

If you are caught taking pictures in Makkah its quite serious offence, but if you get caught taking pictures of the Palace dont be surprised if you end up in big trouble.

Always carry your passport with you. Try to carry the number of your consulate/embassy of your origin in the locality you are in too!

Mountain Homes

If you wander out towards the suburbs you will come across great excavations, holes and digs where bulldozers and other mechanics have cut out mountains like paper.
Thus exposing the inner of this arrid mountainous land.

In the picture you can see how the mountain has been cut, whilst on one side people have their homes dug deep into the mountain side.