Mecca From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Mecca (disambiguation). This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right, instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script. Coordinates: 21°25?00?N 39°49?00?E? / ?21.416667°N 39.816667°E? / 21.416667; 39.816667 ???? ???????? City of Mecca / Makkah Al Mukarrammah Masjid al-Haram, the center of Mecca, and the source of its prominence Nickname(s): Umm Al Qura (Mother of Villages) Location of Mecca Country Saudi Arabia Province Makkah Province Construction of Kaaba +2000 BC Established Ibrahim Joined Saudi Arabia 1924 Government - Mayor Osama Al-Bar - Provincial Governor Khalid al Faisal Area Mecca Municipality - Urban 850 km2 (328.2 sq mi) - Metro 1,200 km2 (463.3 sq mi) Population (2007) - City 1,700,000 - Density 4,200/km2 (2,625/sq mi) - Urban 2,053,912 - Metro 2,500,000 Makkah Municipality estimate Time zone EAT (UTC+3) - Summer (DST) EAT (UTC+3) Postal Code (5 digits) Area code(s) +966-2 Website Mecca Municipality Mecca IPA: /?m?k?/, also spelled Makkah IPA: [?m?k?], Arabic: ???? Makka (in full: Makka al-Mukarrama IPA: [(Arabic) m?k??(t) ?lm?kar?am?]; Arabic: ???? ????????, literally: Honored Mecca) is a city in Saudi Arabia. Home to the Masjid al-Haram, it is the holiest city in Islam and plays an important role in the faith. As of 2008 the annual Hajj pilgrimage attracts two to three million pilgrims to the city,[1][2] and presents both opportunities for the city's economy, and challenges for its infrastructure. Culturally, the city is modern, cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse.[3][4][5][6] Islamic tradition attributes the beginning of Mecca to Ishmael's descendants. In the 7th century, the Islamic prophet Muhammad proclaimed Islam in the city, by then an important trading center, and the city played an important role in the early history of Islam. After 966, Mecca was led by local sharifs, until 1924, when it came under the rule of the Saudis.[7] In its modern period, Mecca has seen a great expansion in size and infrastructure. The modern day city is located in and is the capital of Saudi Arabia's Makkah Province, in the historic Hejaz region. With a population of 1.7 million (2008), the city is located 73 km (45 mi) inland from Jeddah, in a narrow valley, and 277 m (910 ft) above sea level. Etymology Mecca is the original English translation of the Arabic name. Historically, the city has also been called Becca.[8][9] In the 1980s, the Saudi Arabian government and others began promoting the spelling Makkah (in full form, Makkah al-Mukarramah), which more closely resembles the actual Arabic pronunciation. This spelling is starting to be taken up by many organizations, including the United Nations,[10] United States Department of State,[11] and the British Foreign Office, [12] but the spelling Mecca remains in common use. Another alternative is Meccah.[13] Government Mecca is governed by the Municipality of Mecca, headed by a mayor (Also known as Amin) appointed by the Saudi Government. The current mayor of the city is Osama Al-Bar. A municipal council of fourteen locally elected members is responsible for the functioning of the municipality. Mecca is the capital of Makkah Province, which includes neighboring Jeddah. The governor was Prince Abdul Majeed bin Abdul Aziz from 2000 until his death in 2007.[14] On May 16, 2007, Prince Khalid al Faisal was appointed as the new governor.[15] History 1787 Turkish artwork of the Holy Mosque and related religious sites (Jabal al-Nur) Early history According to Islamic tradition, the history of Mecca goes back to Ibrahim (???????, Abraham) when he built the Kaaba with the help of his son Isma'il (???????, Ishmael), around 2000 BC. The inhabitants were stated to have fallen away from monotheism through the influence of the Amelkites.[16] Historians state that the Kaaba later became the repository of 360 idols and tribal gods of all of Arabia's nomadic tribes. Until the 7th century, Mecca's most important god would remain to be Hubal, having been placed there by the ruling Quraysh tribe.[17][18] Ptolemy may have called the city "Macoraba", though this identification is controversial.[19] In the 5th century, the Quraysh took control of Mecca, and became skilled merchants and traders. In the 6th century they joined the lucrative spice trade as well, since battles in other parts of the world were causing trade routes to divert from the dangerous sea routes to the relatively more secure overland routes. The Byzantine Empire had previously controlled the Red Sea, but piracy had been on the increase. Another previous route, that from the Persian Gulf via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was also being threatened by exploitation from the Sassanid Empir

As part of the Museum’s marketing campaign – it was envisaged that it would be good for Red Location Museum to work on a community project with the immediate surrounding residents which would simultaneously afford the Museum the opportunity to add to its collections. A Group of 20 Red Location Residents (age group 50 and upwards) is to be invited to participate in a project where they would be able to tell their narrative in a three dimensional memory book format. Such an exercise would equip Red Location Museum with authentic and creative constructions for its permanent collection, encourage the community to tell their stories in visual format and subsequently provide an opportunity for the participants to earn income from the project through promotional materials (booklets and postcards) to be produced and marketed from the memory books. All profits through the latter would go to the participants. Objective: The Red Location Museum Memory book Project is intended to create an awareness of the functions of art and how the individual can benefit from its processes. The project was initiated with the aim of providing an introduction to the knowledge and skills, employed by artists using found objects from their environment, in the visual expression of personal and private narratives. Participants attending the workshops will be provided with practical and visual examples of how the creative individual, through the medium of art, can participate in a social beneficiary excavation of meaning and memory. The Memory Book Project will thus engender a responsibility for every creative individual to take part in the creation of a flexible, diverse and cohesive social language, the artistic language, with the quintessential aim of self and social empowerment. ‘Art’ should be everybody’s activity; it should commit itself to a continuous revaluation of human thought, a philosophical recording of concepts, behaviours and belief systems that have, thus far, had any significant influence on the context in which humanity has understood and experienced itself. This project will focus on the facilitation of a creative environment in which each participant will be assisted in the production of and art work (memory book) using found material sand objects from their environment. The project will assist in producing a forum for open discussion on various topics related to artistic creativity, ranging from the formal elements of art to subject matter and the creation of personal iconography.