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 Muslims. Moreover, some of these were spared when they converted to Islam. Muhammad's return was followed by several battles which led to Muslims conquering the rest of Arabia, and a final return to Mecca in 632 where he completed his first true Islamic pilgrimage, and made his Farewell Sermon at Mount Arafat. His return marked the end of the tenth year after Muslims' migration to Medina, and his pilgrimage set the precedence for the annual Great Pilgrimage, known as "Hajj." In his "Farewell Sermon", at Mount Arafat east of Mecca on the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, Muhammad advised his followers