Mecca - Masjid al-Haram

21.4225°N, 39.8262°E.

The holiest city in Islam, located in the Sirat Mountains of western Saudi Arabia, 277 metres above sea level. The Masjid al-Haram (Sacred Mosque) surrounds the Kaaba, a granite cube approximately 13.1 metres high with sides of 11.03 by 12.86 metres, draped in the kiswah — a black silk cover embroidered annually in gold thread with verses from the Qur'an. The Black Stone (al-Hajar al-Aswad) set into the eastern corner is a fragment, possibly a meteorite, mounted in a silver frame; it has been broken and reassembled multiple times in its recorded history. Muslim tradition dates the Kaaba's foundation to Abraham; the current structure is largely a 1629 rebuilding by Ottoman Sultan Murad IV. The Hajj pilgrimage brings approximately 2.5 million people annually to circumambulate the Kaaba seven times.

A black cube smaller than a house dictates the daily orientation of 1.9 billion people on five continents.