Mecca

Mecca grew in a dry valley on the caravan route between Yemen and Syria, where a shrine, the Kaaba, and the well of Zamzam drew Arab pilgrims long before Islam. By the sixth century the Quraysh tribe controlled both the sanctuary and the trade that came with it. The Prophet Muhammad was born in the city around 570; his preaching of one God set him against its leading families, and in 622 he and his followers left for Yathrib, later called Medina, an emigration that begins the Islamic calendar. Mecca came under his control in 630, the idols around the Kaaba were removed, and the pilgrimage was reordered as the Hajj of Islam.

Political power moved quickly away — to Medina, then Damascus and Baghdad — but the city's religious standing only grew, and rulers in every century sought the prestige of serving it. From the tenth century the Sharifs of Mecca, descendants of the Prophet, governed locally under successive powers: the Fatimids, the Ayyubids, the Mamluks and, from 1517, the Ottomans, who rebuilt the mosque and improved the water supply. Pilgrim caravans from Cairo, Damascus and Iraq arrived each year, and the Darb Zubaydah road from Kufa was equipped with wells and stations.

In 1916 Sharif Hussein of Mecca revolted against the Ottomans and declared the Kingdom of Hejaz; the city was taken by Abdulaziz Ibn Saud and his allies in the Saudi conquest of the Hejaz, completed in 1925, and became part of what is now Saudi Arabia. Oil revenue and air travel then transformed the pilgrimage: numbers rose from tens of thousands to millions, and successive expansions of the mosque, along with new roads, tunnels, tent camps and hotel towers, replaced most of the old city.

Mecca's life is organised around the Grand Mosque. The five daily prayers set the rhythm of the streets, shops and traffic; the mosque never closes, and the tawaf around the Kaaba continues through the night. The city is the direction of prayer for Muslims everywhere, and residents refer to themselves in relation to the sanctuary as much as to the city.

It is also one of the most internationally mixed places in Arabia. For centuries pilgrims from Africa, Central Asia, India, the Malay world and the Levant settled here, and their descendants form communities whose names, faces, languages and cooking are part of the city. Hejazi Arabic is softer than the Najdi dialect and carries words from Turkish, Persian, Urdu and Malay, and the older Meccan families keep distinct customs of hospitality, dress and celebration.

The customs of the sanctuary govern behaviour. Pilgrims enter ihram, a state of consecration marked by simple white garments for men, and while in it avoid perfume, cutting hair and nails, hunting, arguments and sexual relations. The holy city is closed to non-Muslims, a restriction enforced at checkpoints on every approach road. Hospitality towards pilgrims is a long-standing local duty, from water and dates given at the mosque gates to the volunteers who guide lost groups.

About 2.4 million people live in Mecca, and the number roughly triples during the Hajj, when millions more arrive within a few days. The economy is built almost entirely on the pilgrimage: hotels, pilgrim agencies, transport, catering, retail, construction and the services of the mosque itself employ most of the working population, and the annual cycle of Umrah and Hajj seasons sets the trading year. Many residents work in trades that only exist here, from managing tent camps to guiding groups in a dozen languages.

Housing climbs the hillsides in dense apartment blocks, with newer districts spreading north and east beyond the ring roads and older quarters near the mosque largely replaced by hotel towers. Rents near the haram are high, and many families have been moved outwards by decades of expansion works. Traffic, construction and crowd management are constant facts of life, and the city is quieter in the months between pilgrimage seasons.

Days begin before dawn with the first prayer and go on late, with shops open into the night when the weather is cooler. Summer heat empties the streets in the afternoon. Water supply, flash floods in winter and the scale of building work are familiar local concerns. The regional war that began in late February 2026 has disrupted flights and shipping.

Meccan cooking is Hejazi, and Hejazi food is the most cosmopolitan in the kingdom because pilgrims brought their kitchens with them. Saleeg — short-grain rice cooked in milk and broth until creamy, served with chicken or lamb — is the dish most identified with the region. Mandi pairs meat with spiced rice, kabsa is eaten as everywhere in Saudi Arabia, and yakhni, a dish of slow-stewed meat, belongs to the older Hejazi repertoire.

Breakfast is a fixed ritual: foul, slow-cooked fava beans dressed with olive oil, cumin and lemon; hummus and chickpea shurbah; and tamees, a large flat bread of Afghan origin baked against the wall of a clay oven. Mutabbaq, a thin pancake folded around minced meat, egg or leek and fried flat, and sambusak pastries are sold from griddles at street corners, and both multiply in Ramadan, when the fast is broken with dates, Zamzam water, soups and sweets such as luqaimat and kunafa.

The city's migrant communities give it Indonesian, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Turkish, Egyptian and West African food, much of it concentrated in Al-Misfalah. Dates are sold everywhere, plain or stuffed, and are the usual gift taken home along with containers of Zamzam water. The drinks are Arabic coffee with cardamom, sweet tea, laban and fresh juices; alcohol is prohibited throughout the kingdom.