Riyadh: The third expansion of the Grand Mosque of Makkah in the holy month of Ramzan received nearly 19 million worshipers, at a rate of more than half a million worshipers per hour, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The Director of the General Administration of the Northern Expansion of the Holy Mosque, Engineer Walid Al-Masoudi said that the third Saudi expansion, received 18,911,278 prayers specifically, for all the five obligatory prayers, in addition to the Taraweeh and Tahajjud prayers.
Al-Masoudi said that the worshipers were distributed throughout the days of the holy month on all floors of the expansion building (ground, first, first mezzanine, second, and second mezzanine in balconies, and the surrounding northern and western courtyards).
The expansion receives more than half a million worshipers per hour, 250,000 inside the expansion, and more than 250,000 in the squares.
Throughout its history, the Grand Mosque witnessed successive expansions that began in the era of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, and then extended to the Ottoman era, according to the official website of the Presidency of the two Holy Mosques.
It is noteworthy that, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Call and Guidance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia decided to hold Eid prayers for this year in all regions and governorates in all mosques, with the exception of open chapels.
This decision came in view of the weather fluctuations that different regions and locations in the Kingdom are witnessing these days, as the open Eid chapels were excluded from the sites where the Eid prayer is held, in order to preserve the safety and comfort of worshippers.
