ThePlace: The Prophet’s Mosque

• King Abdul Aziz made the first improvements between 1950 and 1955
• The end of 2013 saw the largest expansion in the mosque’s history

MADINAH: The Prophet’s Mosque Hundreds of thousands of worshippers performed the second Friday prayer at the Prophet’s Mosque during this holy month of Ramadan.
Visitors to Madinah are pleasantly surprised by the minarets of the Prophet’s Mosque, which are considered an Islamic architectural landmark and are visible throughout the city.
During the Prophet Muhammad’s time 1,400 years ago, the call to prayer was performed from the roof of the house closest to the mosque.
But Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid bin Abd Al-Malik ordered the construction of four minarets, one on each corner of the mosque, from where prayers would be called.
Since the establishment of Saudi Arabia, the mosque has undergone massive expansions to cater for the growing number of worshippers.
King Abdul Aziz made the first improvements between 1950 and 1955. The expansions continued between 1986 and 1993 when six minarets were added, raising the total to 10.
Four of them stand at the northern part of the mosque, five at the southeast corner and one at the southwest corner.
Each minaret consists of five floors, each with its own shape, height, diameter and decoration. The end of 2013 saw the largest expansion in the mosque’s history, its capacity increasing to 2 million worshippers.