Mecca Mecca Mecca (; "" () is a city in the Hejazi region of the Arabian Peninsula, and the plain of Tihamah in Saudi Arabia, and is also the capital and administrative headquarters of the Makkah Region. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level, and south of Medina. Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million, although visitors more than triple this number every year during the "Ḥajj" (, "Pilgrimage") period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of "Dhūl-Ḥijjah" (). As the birthplace of Muhammad, and the site
Muhammad in Mecca Medina signed a 10-year truce called the Treaty of Hudaybiyah under which Arab tribes were given the option of joining one or the other of the parties, who would come to their aid should any of their allied tribes face aggression. After the Quraysh-allied Banu Bakr tribe attacked and killed many of the Muslim-allied Banu Khuza'a, Muhammad gathered a large army to attack the Quraysh and take Mecca from them. The large Muslim army entered Mecca on Monday, 11 December 629 (18 Ramadan 8 hijrah) and after only a small skirmish took control of the city. The "opening" of Mecca