Is Mecca on its way to becoming a major city of the 21st century? Will all the building and glitz take away from its status as a religious center? Will it become another Las Vegas? http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/magazine/mecca-goes-mega.html?src=recg&_r=0 Mecca Goes Mega A building boom in the citys sacred center has created a dazzling, high-tech 21st-century pilgrimage. Photographs by LUCA LOCATELLI JUNE 8, 2016 In the days before rapid sea or air travel, it could take months to travel to Mecca. The spiritual heart of Islam lay far from its great capitals in Istanbul, Delhi and Isfahan. The devout came from distant lands on foot, by camel and in horse-drawn carriages. Bedouin tribes routinely robbed these pilgrims, who were the primary source of revenue for this ancient desert town. Now, the ease of air travel and the rise of a global Muslim middle class have made the journey to Mecca far less arduous and far more common. Last year, three million came for the hajj, a pilgrimage in the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar that is considered obligatory for every Muslim who can afford it; five million more came for the umrah, a minor pilgrimage that can be made for much of the year. And millions of Saudi citizens routinely pass through Meccas sacred sites as tourists. The Italian photographer Luca Locatelli, visiting Mecca this year during the umrah period, captured how radically the city has changed to accommodate this growing influx of pilgrims. Until the first half of the 20th century, this was a small city of spacious stone houses famed for their mashrabiyah, or latticed windows and balconies. Five hills known as the rim of Mecca encircled the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba, or House of God, located in the city center. Today, all a visitor would recognize from older images of Mecca are the Ottoman domes of the Grand Mosque, its minarets and the Kaaba. The ancient hills, the old stone homes and many of the sites linked to the life of the Prophet Muhammad have been obliterated by towering shopping malls, hotels and apartment blocks. SLIDE SHOW | 23 Photos The Modern Journey to Mecca The Modern Journey to MeccaCreditLuca Locatelli/Institute, for The New York Times It is a transformation that has been underway since the late 1970s, when the wealth generated by the oil boom led Saudi monarchs to devise an ambitious plan to replace earlier Ottoman structures and to expand the Grand Mosque and its surroundings with Arab-style architecture. At a projected cost of $26.6 billion, the Saudi Binladen Group has led the efforts to increase the capacity of the Grand Mosque, adding new wings, prayer areas, escalators and hundreds of bathrooms. Before his death in 2015, King Abdullah ordered the installation of the worlds largest folding umbrellas in the piazzas outside the Grand Mosque, to shelter worshipers from the blistering sun as they offered prayers, read the Quran or simply basked in their proximity to this holy site. His successor, King Salman, announced plans to build a ring road, subways and intercity trains to accommodate millions of worshipers. One of Locatellis photographs looks as if it were taken from the air, but it was actually shot from one of the highest points of the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, which houses a hulking hotel and shopping complex a few hundred meters from the gates of the Grand Mosque 46 times taller than the Kaaba and crowned by a clock five times the size of Big Ben. Throughout the history of Islam, no other ruler built in such proximity to the Kaaba; certainly none built anything to dwarf it. In luxury hotels like the Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower and the Raffles Makkah Palace, views of the holiest site of Islam are marketed as the Haram view and Kaaba view, and a standard room can run anywhere from $1,500 to $2,700 a night during the hajj. 122 COMMENTS Locatelli, who is Italian and was raised Catholic, gained entry to Mecca through his marriage to an Indonesian Muslim, which included a ceremonial conversion and gave him a feeling of sympathy for his wifes religion. In his striking images, you can see experiences shared by pilgrims everywhere as well as the mix of crass commercialism and genuine faith common among holy sites across religions (Lourdes, Fátima, Varanasi). A group of men in ihram two pieces of white towel-like cloth that the pilgrims wear to convey a state of purity and human equality get a bite to eat in a food court; a young man takes a selfie with the Kaaba in the background; hundreds pray inside a shopping mall. I wanted to show my Western viewers that being a holy tourist in Mecca is not very different, Locatelli says, that we do similar things whether we go to a great temple, to St. Peters or to Mecca. When Locatelli first arrived in Mecca, he was anxious about his outsider status. But, he says, Mecca was truly peaceful. My fear melted away within days. BASHARAT PEER
Here's more: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/...es-bracelets-hajj-safety-160630131905794.html SAUDI ARABIA3 HOURS AGO Saudi Arabia introduces e-bracelets for Hajj safety After last year's stampede that killed hundreds, Riyadh introduces new safety measures to monitor pilgrims' movements. Listen to this page using ReadSpeaker Share via Facebook Share via Twitter Comments Print Every year, millions of Muslims travel to Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites [EPA] Saudi Arabia has announed plans to introduce electronic identification bracelets for all pilgrims heading to Mecca as part of a safety drive. Containing personal and medical information, the e-bracelets will help authorities provide care and identify people, the official Saudi Press Agency SPA said on Thursday. Water-resistant and connected to GPS, the devices will also instruct worshippers on timings of prayers and a multi-lingual help desk to guide especially non-Arabic speaking pilgrims around the various rituals of the annual Islamic event. Every year, millions of Muslims travel to Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites, which are under the custody of Saudi Arabia. Experience the journey of a pilgrim visiting Islam\'s holiest site Last year, authorities say 769 pilgrims died in the stampede in the Mecca district of Mina when thousands of pilgrims converged on a walkway intersection.The majority of the victims were Iranian nationals. To address the security issues, nearly a thousand new surveillance cameras have been installed at Mecca's Grand Mosque, monitoring pilgrim movements, Saudi newspapers have reported. Taking part in the pilgrimage at least once in one's lifetime is a major obligation for all able-bodied Muslims of financial means, and between two and three million people participate in the six-day ritual every year. The annual Muslim pilgrimage re-enacts the actions of the Prophet Muhammad in his "farewell pilgrimage" in AD 632.
