Al-Safa and Al-Marwah

About Al-Safa and Al-Marwah

Two holy hillocks in Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Al-Safa and Al-Marwah are two small hills east of the Kaaba, now enclosed within the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah. Between them Muslims perform the sa'i, the ritual walk of Hajj and Umrah: seven laps beginning at Safa and ending at Marwah. Safa was once joined to the larger Abu Qubais mountain and Marwah to Qaiqan, and the houses of Makkah's people, among them Dar al-Arqam where the early Muslims gathered, once pressed close around them. The sa'i commemorates Hajar, wife of the Prophet Ibrahim, who hurried seven times between the hills searching for water for her infant son Isma'il until God brought forth the well of Zamzam; with the coming of Islam the walk became one of the rites of pilgrimage. The passage between the hills is called al-Mas'a. It was brought inside the Grand Mosque in the first Saudi expansion of 1375 AH (1955–56), which cut the hills from their parent mountains and left a few of their rocks exposed as markers. The Mas'a is about 394.5 metres long, so the seven laps total roughly 2,761 metres. It is 40 metres wide and built on four levels with a combined area of more than 87,000 square metres, air-conditioned and floored in marble, with dedicated lanes for wheelchairs.

Where:

Mecca, Saudi Arabia