Kaaba

The Kaaba (Arabic: الكعبة, romanized: al-Kaʿba, lit. 'the Cube'), also spelled Kaʽba, Kaʽbah or Kabah, sometimes referred to as al-Kaʽba al-Musharrafa (Arabic: الكعبة المشرفة, lit. 'the Honored Ka'ba'), is a stone building at the center of Islam's most important mosque and holiest site, the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is considered by Muslims to be the Baytullah (Arabic: بيت اللَّٰه, lit. 'House of God') and determines the qibla (Arabic: قبلة, lit. 'direction of prayer') for Muslims around the world. According to Islamic tradition, the Kaaba was rebuilt several times throughout history, most famously by Ibrahim and his son Ismail, when he returned to the valley of Mecca several years after leaving his wife Hajar and Ismail there upon Allah's command. The current structure was built after the original building was damaged by a fire during the siege of Mecca by the Umayyads in 683 CE. Circling the Kaaba seven times anti-clockwise, known as tawaf (Arabic: طواف, romanized: ṭawaaf), is a fard rite for the completion of the hajj and umrah pilgrimages. The area around the Kaaba where pilgrims walk is called the mataaf. In early Islam, Muslims faced in the general direction of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem as the qibla in their prayers before changing the direction to face the Kaaba, believed by Muslims to be a result of a Quranic verse revelation to Muhammad. The Kaaba and the mataaf are surrounded by pilgrims every day of the Islamic year, except the 9th of Dhu'l-Hijja, known as the Day of Arafah, on which the cloth covering the structure, known as the Kiswah (Arabic: كسوة, romanized: kiswa, lit. 'Cloth'), is changed. However, the most significant increase in their numbers is during Ramadan and the hajj, when millions of pilgrims gather for tawaf. According to the Saudi Ministry of Hajj...