Al-Masjid al-Haram ("The Holy Masjid"; also known as al-Haram Masjid, Haram al-Sharif, Masjid al-Sharif and the Haram) in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, is the holiest Masjid in the world and the primary destination of the Hajj pilgrimage.The Masjid complex covers an area of 356,800 square meters and can accommodate up to 820,000 worshippers during the Hajj. The Holy Masjid is the only Masjid that has no qibla direction, since Muslims pray facing the Ka'bah in the central courtyard.
The Haram was built in the 7th century and has been modified, rebuilt, and expanded on a regular basis ever since. Major expansions took place in the 1980s and further work is going on today.
The beginnings of the Holy Masjid were established under Caliph Omar Ibn al-Khattab (634-644). The caliph ordered the demolition of houses surrounding the Ka'bah in order to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims, then built a 1.5-meter high wall to form an outdoor prayer area around the shrine. During the reign of Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan (644-656), the prayer area was enlarged and covered with a simple roof supported by wooden columns and arches.
In 692, after Caliph Abdul Malik bin Marwan conquered Makkah from Ibn Zubayr, the building was enlarged and embellished: the outer walls were raised, the ceiling was covered with teak and the capitals were painted in gold. The caliph's son al-Walid (705-715) replaced the wooden columns with marble ones and decorated its arches with mosaics. Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur (754-775) added mosaics to the columns, doubled the size of the northern and western wings of the prayer hall and erected the minaret of Bab al-Umra on the northwest corner.
In 777, a major rebuild took place under Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785) to accommodate the growing number of pilgrims. The existing Masjid was demolished along with more houses in the area and a new Masjid was constructed in its place. Measuring 196 by 142 meters, it was built on a grid plan with marble columns from Egypt and Syria decorated with gilt teak wooden inlay. Al-Mahdi's Masjid also included three minarets, placed above Bab al-Salam, Bab Ali and Bab al-Wadi.In 1399, the northern part of the Masjid was severely damaged by fire and the remaining sections suffered from water damage. The Masjid was subsequently rebuilt by Mamluk Sultan Nasir Faraj bin Barquq (1399-1405). The damaged marble columns were replaced with stone columns quarried from the nearby Hijaz region and the roof was patched with local wood from the Ta'if Mountains.
In 1571, Ottoman Sultan Selim II (1566-1574) commissioned the court architect Sinan to renovate the Holy Masjid. It is from this renovation that the present building mostly dates. Sinan replaced the flat roof of the prayer hall with domes, supported by the addition of new columns from the nearby Shams Mountains. The interior of the domes were decorated with gilded calligraphy.Due to damaging rains in 1611, the Masjid was once again restored under Sultan Murad IV (1623-1640) in 1629. It received a new stone arcade with slender columns and inscriptive medallions between the arches. The floor tiles around the Ka'bah were replaced with new colored marble tiles and the Masjid was given seven minarets.
Between 1955 and 1973, King Abdul Aziz (1932-1953) commissioned the first of many extensions under the Saudi kings. As part of the renovations, the Mas'a gallery connecting the Rock of al-Safa' with al-Marwah was extended to reach the Masjid. The two-story extension was built of reinforced concrete arches clad in carved marble and artificial stone, which communicates with the street and the Masjid via eleven doors.A major extension sponsored by King Fahd (1982- 1988) consisted of a new wing and an outdoor prayer area on the southeast side of the Masjid. In the two-story wing, air conditioning circulates below the tiled floors and is supplied through ventilation grids located at the base of each column. The facade of the extension blends in with the previous constructions, with gray marble facing from the Fatimah Mountains and carved white marble bands.
The third Saudi extension (1988-2005) saw the building of further minarets, the erecting of a King’s residence overlooking the Masjid and further prayer area in and around the Masjid itself. These developments have taken place simaltenously with those in Arafat, Mina and Muzdalifah. This third extension has also resulted in 18 more gates been built, three domes corresponding in position to each gate and the installation of nearly 500 marble columns.
The monumental King Fahd Gate consists of three arches with black and white voussoirs and carved white marble decoration, flanked by two new minarets matching the older ones. The windows are covered with brass mashrabiyya and framed with carved bands of white marble. The minor gates have green-tiled sloped canopies.
Modern but essentially non-architectural developments have been the addition of heated floors, air conditioning, escalators, and a drainage system.
The death of King Fahd means that the Masjid is now undergoing a fourth extension, which began in 2007 and is projected to last until 2020. King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz plans to increase the capacity of the Masjid by 35% from its current maximum capacity of 800,000 with 1,120,000 outside the Masjid itself.
