Rare Calm at Kaaba: Mecca’s Mataf Nearly Empty as Saudi Arabia Enforces Strict Entry Ahead of Hajj 2025
In what many consider a highly unusual scene, the mataf — the white marble area encircling the sacred Kaaba at the heart of the Grand Mosque — was seen virtually deserted this week, an uncommon moment of silence at one of Islam’s most revered sites. Ordinarily teeming with tens of thousands of worshippers performing tawaf