Destination: Makkah

Mecca /ˈmɛkə/, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah[a] and commonly shortened to Makkah[b] is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam.[2] It is 70 km (43 mi) inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley 277 m (909 ft) above sea level. Its last recorded population was 1,578,722 in 2015.[3] Its estimated metro population in 2020 is 2.042 million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Pilgrims more than triple this number every year during the Ḥajj pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of Dhūl-Ḥijjah.