See pictures of how the Holy Mosque of Mecca has evolved through the ages

ArabiaWeather.com- The Holy Kaaba has a great religious and spiritual status for all Muslims. Throughout its Islamic history, it has received great attention for its continuous development, and it has gone through several stages since the beginning of its construction at the time of our master Ibrahim until now, and it has witnessed huge projects all pouring into one goal, which is service Guests of the Most Gracious who came from everywhere to perform Hajj and Umrah.

A long history during which the Holy Mosque of Mecca passed through a number of historical expansions. According to the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, the expansions that the Holy Mosque of Mecca went through are:

Expansion of Omar Ibn Al-Khattab, may God be pleased with him, in the year 17 AH

Expansion of Othman bin Affan, may God be pleased with him, in the year 26 AH

Expansion of Abdullah bin Al-Zubair, may God be pleased with him, in the year 65 AH

Expansion of Al-Walid bin Abdul-Malik in the year 91 AH

Expansion of Abu Jaafar al-Mansur in the year 137 AH

Al-Mahdi’s expansion in the years 160-164 AH

Expansion of Al-Mu'tadid Al-Abbasid in the year 281 AH

Expansion of Al-Muqtadir Billah Al-Abbasi in the year 306 AH

Expansion of Al-Muqtadir Billah Al-Abbasi in the year 306 AH

Then came a set of major expansions, which were as follows:

The blessed Saudi expansion of the Grand Mosque:

The first stage: The features of the sanctuary that you see now began to appear gradually in this expansion, as the Masa’a was built of two floors, and that was in the year 1375 AH corresponding to 1955 AD.

The second phase: expanding the Mataf and building the outer part of the Haram, and this phase was in 1379 AH - corresponding to 1959.

The third phase: This expansion came by order of King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz - may God have mercy on him - to amend the original design of the expansion in order to preserve the buildings of the Ottoman Mosque in 1387 AH.

The expansion of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, to the Grand Mosque

On the second of the month of Safar in the year 1409 AH, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, laid the foundation stone for the expansion of the Grand Mosque, which included adding a new part to the current mosque building from the western side in the small market area, between Bab al-Umrah and Bab al-Malik. The area of the floors of the expansion building is (76,000) square meters distributed on the ground floor, the first floor, the basement and the roof, and can accommodate about 152 thousand worshipers.

The project includes equipping the outer squares, including the remaining square on the side of the small market and the square located east of Al-Masaa, with a total area of (85,800) square meters, sufficient to accommodate (195,000) worshipers. For about (773,000) worshipers on regular days, but during the times of Hajj , Umrah and Ramadan, the capacity of the sanctuary increases to more than one million worshipers.

The expansion building also includes a new main entrance and 18 regular entrances, in addition to the current 3 main entrances and 27 regular entrances to the Grand Mosque. The design took into account the construction of two new entrances to the basement, in addition to the current four entrances.

The expansion building also includes two new minarets with a height of (89) meters, which are similar in their architectural design to the seven minarets. In order to facilitate the arrival of groups of worshipers to the roof of the expansion during the seasons, two escalator buildings were added, one in the north of the expansion building and the other in the south, with an area of 375 square meters each.

It contains two sets of escalators, the capacity of each group is (15,000) people per hour, in addition to two sets of escalators within the boundaries of the building on both sides of the main entrance for expansion. , especially the elderly without trouble, and thus the total number of escalator buildings becomes 7, spread around the perimeter of the campus and the expansion to serve the pioneers of the first floor and the roof, and the number of columns for each floor of the expansion is 492 columns, all of which are covered with marble.

Expansion of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz

And by order of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the largest expansion works in the Grand Mosque of Mecca in its history began, to keep pace with the continuous increase in the number of pilgrims coming from all over the world.

It is expected that this expansion will raise the capacity of the Holy Mosque in Makkah to reach nearly two and a half million worshipers. The expansion that is currently being worked on includes public services such as water, electricity, air conditioning, refrigeration and other matters that make it easier for the guests of the Sacred House of God.

In this group of photos, we review the changes that occurred in the Holy Kaaba and the Great Mosque of Mecca during the period between 1910 AD and 2014 AD.