Kaaba

The Kaaba is a cuboid structure at the center of the Grand Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and is the holiest site in Islam. It serves as the qibla, the direction of prayer for Muslims worldwide.

From within the Grand Mosque compound, worshippers gather around the Kaaba to perform tawaf, the ritual circumambulation. The structure itself is covered by a black textile known as the kiswa and contains the Black Stone set into one corner.

Islamic tradition traces the Kaaba’s origins to the patriarch Abraham and his son Ishmael; the structure has been rebuilt and renovated many times across centuries. It has served as a religious focal point through pre-Islamic and Islamic periods and has been adapted repeatedly as the Grand Mosque expanded.

The Kaaba stands at the geographic and ritual center of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca Province, surrounded by the mosque’s multi-level prayer courtyards and modern expansion works.

• Access restriction: Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the Sacred Mosque precinct in Mecca where the Kaaba stands; viewing is restricted to Muslim pilgrims and visitors.
• Religious significance: The Kaaba is the fixed qibla point toward which Muslims worldwide orient their prayers; it is also the focal point of the Hajj pilgrimage.