Great Mosque of Mecca 8.05

The Great Mosque of Mecca, also called the Grand Mosque, is the largest mosque in the World, and surrounds Islam's holiest place, the Kaaba, in the city of Makkah, Hijaz, Saudi Arabia. Muslims face in the Qiblah while performing Salah . One of the Five Pillars of Islam requires every Muslim to perform the Ḥajj, one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world, at least once in their lifetime if able to do so, including Ṭawāf of the Kaaba.HistoryEra of Abraham and IshmaelThe Quran states that Abraham, together with his son Ishmael, raised the foundations of a house that is identified by most commentators as the Kaaba. Allah had shown Abraham the exact site, very near to the Well of Zamzam, where Abraham and Ishmael began work on the Kaaba's construction in circa 2130 BCE. After Abraham had built the Kaaba, an angel brought to him the Black Stone, a celestial stone that, according to tradition, had fallen from Heaven on the nearby hill Abu Qubays. According to a saying attributed to Muhammad, the Black Stone had "descended from Paradise whiter than milk but the sins of the sons of Adam had made it dark". The Black Stone is believed to be the only remnant of the original structure made by Abraham.