A long time ago I noted these tunnels for a future post and have finally gone back to mark them. The city of Mecca has millions of visitors every year, on their Hajj (pilgrimage) to visit the holiest shrine in the Muslim religion, the Kabbah. The black silk-shrouded shrine sits inside The Holy Mosque, an enormous, gleaming white edifice built to hold multitudes. You will notice a very large expansion of the mosque under construction. Mecca is the point toward which all Muslims of the world pray.

Photo

Managing traffic in this city must be a constant challenge. To that end, many tunnels have been built under the city to carry both vehicles and pedestrians. Two of them lead under the mosque, which I have marked as underground auto parking, but they might be for pedestrians, instead. In a few cases I was not sure where one section connected with another (marked with question marks), so any corrections will be appreciated. You will also notice the sea of white tents at nearby Mena, where people from all over the world camp in what looks like fair comfort. I have the impression, after looking at most of the photos of the tent area, that certain sections are reserved for particular countries of origin. And of course there are hotels of all classes for those with more money to spend.

Photo by Asma

Incidentally, The Holy Mosque must be the most heavily posted with Panoramio photos of any place on Google Earth!

Edit: Updated file at 231 downloads. I combined my finds with hurk27's, his are in red. I even found 4 more under Mina when updating tonight!

Great post, I sat for hours scouring the hills looking for tunnels lol

I found 4 more under ground tunnals you can add to your KMZ file, two look like entrances, and two are just the exits of a tunnel you already started.

A great post Diane

The Holy Mosque over flows during the Hajj period and also during the last 7-10 days of Ramadan. I was there during May end this year for two weeks. It was lean period but still there must have been several thousand pilgrims from all over the World. Unfortunately I missed seeing most of the tunnels. Some of these tunnels are closed for vehicular traffic during Hajj and used by pilgrims to walk to and fro between Makkah and Mina.

Hajj is an enormous logistical and transportation task, when a crowd of about 3 million have to move from Makkah to Mina (the tented location), Arafat and back to Mina within a span of 2 days. Saudi authorities are continuously striving to built large networks of roads/tunnels to make Hajj as smooth as possible.

The tents in Mina are used only for 3 days during the Hajj period then these are sort of mothballed.

I have explained the ritual in this post about Hajj.

I have taken some photograph and am thinking of revising my post.

If you or any other reader/member has any question about Makkah or Medinah or Hajj please feel free to ask.

Thank you, hurk27, for the two tunnel entrances I missed! I have connected them with a north-south highway that really had me puzzled. I think it's right, now. There remains a complicated section I still can't sort out. We need a traffic engineer in this thread! Any help with this will be greatly appreciated...

(Now it occurs to me
that I should have numbered each path for easier reference.)



CJM - I cannot believe I had forgotten about your Hajj post, I will read it again! You present a point that applies to my post - the huge number of people that need to be moved and the short period of time this takes place. Astounding. A few questions:

- You say the tents are used only for Hajj, so does that mean not for Ramadan? Do all visitors stay in hotels, then?

- Is Mina (or Mena) arranged so that nationalities are together in sections? (Makes sense - human beings naturally divide themselves this way.) One Pano shows a sign saying, "Berbers" in front of a section of tents. Another section had a flag of Pakistan flying in front.

- What is the "Jamarat" shown under construction at Mina? Is it entirely for pedestrian traffic, or does it serve another purpose?

- There is an informal camping area in Mina with small, striped tents, which I have placemarked. (See below, also see the Pano to the NW.) Are those the "affordable" accomodations, or for a specific group? Edit: Deleted this file, CuriousJM informs us those are construction supplies, not tents. You might not know all of the answers, but are in a much better position to find them than I am! Thanks so much...

Ok Diane, I have located some new tunnels, and by using the "Roads" overlay, which you can turn on under the primary database layers, it will give you a better idea of where some of the roads go, but it in it self is not complete, and I might have to do some searching for some maps of the area to complete them. but I have routed many of the tunnels by using the map over lay of the roads. some will make sense some will not.

But it did at least straighten out the intersection you posted above.;)

I'm having fun just trying to figure out how to do all this making lines thingy, and getten it all in one folder.

Edit by Diane: Hurk's file is now merged with mine in the original post so you 'll download them all at once.

Ok added a few small tunnels, and some multi-layered roads around the Kings residence.

The arrows are pointing to what I think are tunnels or just under roof/ground areas, the multi-layered areas could go all the way under the main buildings for parking, but I have no way to tell.

There are 3 folders,Diane's, my first addition (Tunnels of Mecca2), and a second edition (tunnels of mecca3). which are inside of Diane's

Hope this sorts out some of it.;)

Edit by Diane: Hurk's files are now merged with mine in the original post, so you can download them all at once.

Fantastic, hurk - thanks so much for your work! When I get time I'll delete my incorrect ones, but it looks kind of interesting, anyway, to have them to compare with yours. This has become a very interesting area, hasn't it?

Hi Diane - I read your post about additional queries just now. I will revert soon with replies.
CJM

Yes it has, and since I love flying, I have spent countless hours flying around this area, in the simulator, to get a real feel of a lay of the land, and in doing so I come to realize why these tunnels are so important for these people, because without them, and with that this city and out lying areas are built in such a hilly area with so many hills and valleys, building roadways would have made many routes so long to get around these hills, that any transportation would have been so slow and over burdened. thus the tunnels are a very excellent engineering feat all in its self, and probably one of most exceptional choices for an area of such terrain.


Also feel free to use anything I have posted as your own, to help build a complete KMZ file, this is your thread, and I only wish to be of help

Hi Diane

My apologies for this delay. Here is my point wise reply.


Yes the tents are used only during the Hajj Day 1, 3, 4 & 5 (and in certain cases by some people on day 6 - if they have not completed all the rituals of Hajj by day 5).

Earlier there were no hotels or permanent residences in Mina. The only permanent buildings in Mina were mainly the Al Khaif Mosque plus the administrative, crowd control, utilities, fire control buildings and sacrificial meat processing plant etc.

During my recent visit in May 2009 I didn't see any residential buildings however after reading your queries I checked the photographs taken by me at Mina and one photo revealed a group of 6 multi-storey buildings.


I wish I had noticed these buildings then. As per Panoramio these are hotels. I called one of my relative last night who was in Makkah during Ramadan this year and he also says that to his best knowledge there are no hotels in Mina. I will check this further and will revert back as soon as I get some info.

After completion of Hajj the only activities which go on in Mina are general cleaning, maintenance, repair, renovation or fresh construction in preparation for next Hajj.

Regarding the massive gathering of Moslem in Makkah during the Month of Ramadan - as per Quran, during one particular night of Ramadan, when the Quran was revealed, Allah opens the gates of mercy.

The Quran says: "Surely We revealed it (the Holy Quran) on the grand night. And what will make you comprehend what the grand night. The grand night is better than a thousand months. The angels and Jibreel (Gabriel) descend in it by the permission of their Lord for every affair, Peace! It is till the break of the morning." (97:1-5).

However no one now knows the particular night when this happened and as per tradition it is either 19th, 21st or 23rd of Ramadan. The night is called "Lailatul Qadr": Night of Power, Night of Destiny or Night of Majesty.

Moslem believe one must spend these nights in prayers and obviously the best place to offer prayers is in the Holy Mosque at Kaaba. Hence Moslem from all corner of the World gather here. This gathering is not mandatory like Hajj.

Mina, therefore, has no role to play during Ramadan and about 2 million people who gather in Makkah during Ramadan, stay either in hotels or in hired rooms. It is source of income to many local families who vacate their homes during Hajj and Ramadan and give it out for rent during this period. It is quite common for 6-8 persons to share a room and use common toilets/bathrooms.


You are very correct. Generally the tents are nation wise. As a part of proper management Saudi's have appointed several agents to look after the needs of the pilgrims during their stay in KSA in general and during 5 days of Hajj in particular. Each main agent is allocated areas in Mina. Each agent has sub-agents and sub-sub agents who are made responsible to look after a group of people. It is they who arrange for the accommodation, transportation and food during Hajj. On reaching KSA each pilgrim is given a metallic band with agent/sub agents name and code so that in case he is lost his group can be traced quickly. Remember people come from all corners of earth, speaking all sorts of languages and a many of the pilgrims don't even know how to read or write. The sub-sub agents are therefore some one who knows the language of that particular group.


"Jamarat" basically means pillars. These pillars symbolise the place where Satan tried three times to mislead and divert Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham) mind from his goal of sacrificing his Son Ismail but each time Prophet Ibrahim drove him away by pelting the Satan with stones.

As a part of Hajj rituals, the three pillars are required to be pelted by pilgrim during the 3 consecutives days they spend in Mina. (Days 3, 4 & 5). This is most dangerous part of Hajj and there have been many cases of stampedes and deaths here. What you see in GE is a pedestrian bridge known as "Jamarat Bridge" constructed to divide/divert the crowd into multi-levels. It is used only and only for these 3 days.

In mid sixties a two tiered bridge was made there with three conical openings for stoning the pillars which were extended till the upper level. The pilgrims could throw the pebbles either from the ground floor or from the upper floor through the openings. After a tragic mishap in 2004 a scientific study of crowd control was carried out and based on these studies a 5 tier bridge is already functional. I believe it will ultimately be raised to 9 tiers.


The small striped tents that you have pointed out appear to me as the construction material/machinery/offices etc. These are too close together to be tents. When I visited some construction activity was going around. Here is a cropped of part of a photo I took.


At the time of GE imagery probably much more construction activity may have been going around near the Jamarat Bridge.

The tents are generally of uniform design and catering to 10-12 persons each and are provided with desert coolers. The tents for VIPs may be same but these may be provided with air-conditioners and may be accommodating lesser persons. This needs to be checked.

I will explore all this further and will try to obtain more first hand information. Till then this is all the info I have on your present set of questions. If you want any more info/clarification please feel free to ask.