The faith of up to 1.8 billion people, roughly a quarter of the world’s population, dictates each one of them pray five times a day in the direction of a small, cubic building in Saudi Arabia. This ...

The Kaaba is the most sacred site in Islam and is located at the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Muslims around the world face toward it during daily prayers, symbolizing unity and devotion. The ...

Security forces in Mecca are cracking down on people trying to make a pilgrimage without a permit, as the Islamic holy city prepares to host hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshippers. Ahead of the ...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia - As a child, Osama al-Bar would walk from his home past Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, to the market of spice and fabric merchants where his father owned a store. At that time, ...

Pilgrims outside the Grand Mosque, where fans are installed to cool them as temperatures climb towards 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) — Sajjad HUSSAIN Vast crowds of robed Muslim faithful ...

(RNS) — I was disappointed to not experience my children’s reaction to seeing the Kaaba for the first time, but made my peace. After leaving Medina, where we’d spent a few days before going to Mecca, ...

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — More than 2 million Muslims began the annual hajj pilgrimage at first light Sunday in Saudi Arabia, circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in Mecca that Islam's faithful face five times ...

Click and gape at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel ceiling up close. Click again and join thousands of pilgrims praying and circling around the cube-shaped Kaaba at Islam’s most sacred site. Or strap on a ...

A waning gibbous moon appeared directly above the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia at dawn on Friday, creating a rare celestial alignment over Islam’s holiest site. Majed Abu Zahra, head of the Jeddah ...