section_path: Etymology/Makkah, Makkah al-Mukarramah and Mecca
section_name: Makkah, Makkah al-Mukarramah and Mecca
paragraph_text: Makkah, Makkah al-Mukarramah and Mecca
  
  Makkah is the official transliteration used by the Saudi government and is closer to the Arabic pronunciation. The government adopted Makkah as the official spelling in the 1980s, but it is not universally known or used worldwide. The full official name is Makkah al-Mukarramah (Arabic: مكة المكرمة, lit. ' Makkah the Honored '). Makkah is used to refer to the city in the Quran in Surah Al-Fath (48), verse 24.
  
  The word Mecca in English has come to be used to refer to any place that draws large numbers of people, and because of this some English-speaking Muslims have come to regard the use of this spelling for the city as offensive. Nonetheless, Mecca is the familiar form of the English transliteration for the Arabic name of the city.
  
  Macoraba, another ancient city name mentioned by Claudius Ptolemy Felix' Arabia Felix, was also claimed to be Mecca. Some studies have questioned this association. Many etymologies have been proposed: the traditional one is that it is derived from the Old South Arabian root M-K-R-B which means "temple".