What is the name of the black stone in Mecca, visited by pilgrims during the Hajj?
Black Stone relics in the Topkapı Palace. The Black Stone was described by European travellers to Arabia in the 19th and early 20th centuries, who visited the Kaaba disguised as pilgrims. Swiss traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt visited Mecca in 1814, and provided a detailed description in his 1829 book "Travels in Arabia": Visiting the Kaaba in 1853, Richard Francis Burton also noted that: Ritter von Laurin, the Austrian consul-general in Egypt, was able to inspect a fragment of the Stone removed by Muhammad Ali in 1817 and reported that it had a pitch-black exterior and a silver-grey, fine-grained interior in which tiny
Incidents during the Hajj Incidents during the Hajj There have been incidents during the Hajj', the Muslim pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, that have caused loss of life. Every follower of Islam is required to visit Mecca during the Hajj at least once in his or her lifetime, if able to do so; according to Orthodox Islam, the pilgrimage is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. During the month of the Hajj, Mecca must cope with as many as three million pilgrims. Plane travel makes Mecca and the Hajj more accessible to pilgrims from all over the world. As a consequence, the