Mecca is considered the
Both Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims agree on the three Holiest sites in Islam being, respectively, the Masjid al-Haram (including the Kaaba), in Mecca; the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, in Medina; and the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, in Jerusalem.
Mecca, Arabic Makkah, ancient Bakkah, city, western Saudi Arabia, located in the Ṣirāt Mountains, inland from the Red Sea coast. It is the holiest of Muslim cities. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born in Mecca, and it is toward this religious centre that Muslims turn five times daily in prayer (see qiblah).
Mecca is followed the Damascus (8th century), Baghdad (9th century), Cordoba (10th century), Jerusalem (11th century), Cairo (12th century), Fez (13th century), Samarkand (14th century), Constantinople (15th century), Kabul (16th century), Isfahan (17th century), Tripoli (18th century), Beirut (19th century), Dubai ( ...
Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem are the three holy cites for the Muslims. Mecca and Medina are located in present-day Saudi Arabia, while Jerusalem is located in present-day Israel.
Jerusalem has been the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual center of the Jewish people since the 10th century BC when the site was chosen during the lifetime of King David to be the location of the Holy Temple.
Ever since the time of Muhammad, Muslims have considered Jerusalem to be an important place for pilgrimage after Makka, due to its religious significance as being the place of the prophet's miraculous journey to heaven.
The English word "mosque" denotes a Muslim house of worship. The word evolved from the Arabic term masjid, which means "place of prostration." During prayer, Muslims briefly kneel and touch their foreheads to the ground as a sign of submission (literally, Islam) to the will of God.
Allah is the standard Arabic word for God and is used by Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews as well as by Muslims.
Muslims believe that Mecca is the place where Abraham and Ishmael built the Ka'bah, an act referred to in Qur'an 3.96.
Jericho, Palestine
A small city with a population of 20,000 people, Jericho, which is located in Palestine, is believed to be the oldest city in the world. Indeed, some of the earliest archeological evidence from the area dates back 11,000 years.
Arabic names
In Arabic, Jerusalem is most commonly known as القُدس, transliterated as al-Quds and meaning "The Holy" or "The Holy Sanctuary", cognate with Hebrew: הקדש, romanized: Ha-Qodesh, lit. 'The Holy'.
In July 1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law as part of the country's Basic Law, which declared Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel.
About eight-in-ten (81%) Israeli adults are Jewish, while the remainder are mostly ethnically Arab and religiously Muslim (14%), Christian (2%) or Druze (2%). Overall, the Arab religious minorities in Israel are more religiously observant than Jews.
While the significance of most places typically varies depending on the Islamic sect, there is a consensus across all mainstream branches of the religion that affirms three cities as having the highest degree of holiness, in descending order: Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.
Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world. The word Hindu is an exonym although many practitioners refer to their religion as Sanātana Dharma (Sanskrit: सनातन धर्म, lit.
Athens, Greece
It has actually been inhabited for over 7000 years. A city-state of the once-burgeoning ancient Greece, Athens played a critical role in shaping philosophy, drama, literature, and science.
Founded in the 3rd millennium B.C., Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East.
Modern Istanbul remains one of the world's most beautiful cities, with the soaring minarets of the great Hagia Sophia and Sultanahmet mosque pricking the skyline above a fascinating tangle of bazaars, and the serene waters of the Golden Horn and Bosphorus below.
Mecca (/ˈmɛkə/; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah) is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and considered the holiest city in Islam.