Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām

The Kaaba, which Muslims hold to be the House of God, was raised by Ibrahim and his son Ismail. Before Islam it was a Qurayshi sanctuary housing 360 idols; after Muhammad entered Mecca the idols were destroyed and the shrine rededicated to God.

Fire gutted the building during the Umayyad siege of 683, and in 693 the caliph Abd al-Malik rebuilt it on Qurayshi foundations, giving it a cube form. In 930 the Qarmatians carried off the Black Stone and held it until 952; after the floods of 1626 the Ottoman sultan Murad IV rebuilt the walls.

Circling the Kaaba seven times is the central rite of the hajj and umrah pilgrimages, and the kiswah that covers it is renewed every year.