After a twelve hour journey we finally reached the hotel in Makkah. Aash has the best look on his face which pretty much explains that we were now dead tired after finally reaching our destination at dawn. But our spirits revived pretty quickly and within we few hours we left for doing the Umra, the first stage of doing the final Hajj.

We reached Makkah at dawn. This is the view from the hotel room. You can only see the top floor of the Haram Sharif Masjid. You cannot see the Kaaba since it is on the ground floor and to the right. Even at this time there are lots of people around. The crowds only got bigger.

We are now doing the Umra. This involves seven rounds of the Kaaba. The rounds start at the corner to the left of the door. Since I was taking Mummy around in a wheelchair, we were on the second floor. The wheel chair lane is right on the edge of the second floor and offers a spectacular view. It is slower than walking because of the number of wheelchairs.

Another view of the Kaaba. The black covering is embroidered with verses in gold thread. Hundreds of years ago the covering was sometimes red, or yellow. In the foreground is the Muqam-i-Ibrahim where Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) footprints are stored. These were moved there from their original location next to the Kaaba. The semicircular structure to the right of the kaaba is Al-Hateem which is an unfinished portion.

A closeup of the Muqam-i-Ibrahim and the people reaching out to touch the door(Al-Mottazam) and pray. This is considered a very special spot to pray since The Prophet liked to pray here as well. The crowd gets thicker and thicker as you get closer to the Kaaba. This little malaysian woman in front of me ducked down to pick up something she saw on the ground and for a brief moment I thought she was going to be run over. It turned out to be a wallet which she then tossed into the Al-Hateem. The sights you see of people around you are unforgettable. There was one man who was carrying his daughter who was obviously sick. He had tears streaming down his face. They had all come looking for healing or forgiveness or hope.

The crowded center of the mosque. It is easy to see the second floor and the third floor which is the roof. You can do tawaf (or circling of the Kaaba at any level. When the Prophet did his one and only Hajj, he did it on a camel, so the intent is not to make this hard physically but to be meaningful.

This corner of the Kaaba defines the starting line to do the tawaf or rounds. When the pilgrims reach this point they lift their hands towards the black stone palms away. If you view this picture as the original by clicking on the picture and picking "O", you can zoom in on the hajis at the corner lifting up their arms.

A closeup of the people at the door. You can see two security guards at the corner. They hold onto a rope to keep from being swept away by the ocean of pilgrims. The golden object in the foreground is the Maqam Ibrahim and has the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) footprints. Although in Islam no object is to be worshipped you see many people touching it.

Another view of the Kaaba.

Dr. Hoda being pushed by a young fellow we hired outside the mosque. You find a number of people with empty wheelchairs outside willing to take you around for a fee. By Saudi law, this is not legal. Our fellow was stopped by a policeman and a long argument ensued where he was told to get out. I however held on firm to him and explained the best I could that we needed him other wise Dr. Hoda would not be able to complete his tawaf. The policeman finally relented and allowed him on. The wheelchair pushers of course want to perform tawaf as fast as possible withthe result that for the first two rounds we careened around the pillars and hallways at breakneck speed until I finally stopped him and made him follow me in the wheelchair lane which is right up against the edge with a beautiful view of the Kaaba. Much slower but much more enjoyable.