Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, who served as the kingdom’s top religious cleric for over 25 years, has died in Riyadh. He was 84. Funeral prayers were attended by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler. The funeral was held at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh.

As grand mufti since 1999, Sheikh Abdulaziz held one of the most influential religious roles in the Sunni Muslim world. Saudi Arabia, home to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the annual Hajj pilgrimage, has long tied state legitimacy to clerical authority under its strict Wahhabi interpretation of Islam.

Sheikh Abdulaziz’s role as grand mufti put him in the spotlight because of every Muslim’s goal of attending the annual Hajj pilgrimage required of all able-bodied Muslims once in their lives. The grand mufti’s words are carefully followed. (Related: take these steps and jump into the Green Prophet guide for a greener Hajj).

Blind from a young age, Sheikh Abdulaziz was appointed grand mufti by the House of Saud’s King Fahd. Fahd was King and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia from 13 June 1982 until his death in 2005.

Sheikh Abdulaziz’s rulings reflected decades of Islamic ultraconservative thought, once condemning mobile phone cameras as a threat to morality and he compared chess to gambling. (This year the Taliban banned chess). He opposed women driving and described gender mixing as “evil and catastrophe” before later softening his stance as the state changed course. Saudi Arabia decided to let women drive in 2018.

At times, his comments provoked international backlash. In 2015, he reportedly told Kuwaiti officials it was “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region” in the Arabia peninsula— remarks his aides later attempted to downplay. He also issued sectarian statements against Shiite Muslims, particularly following Iran’s criticism of Saudi Arabia after the deadly 2015 Hajj stampede.

Luckily for the western world, and peaceful prospects in the region through the Abraham Accords, he condemned al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State, calling them “enemy No. 1 of Islam.” After 9/11, when Saudi Arabia battled an al-Qaida insurgency within its own borders, he rejected militant jihad as “fake.” We should not forget that 15 of the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

From Wahhabism to Vision 2030

Sheikh Abdulaziz’s career spanned a period of dramatic transformation under the House of Saud, a grand kingdom that rose from rules in mud castles. Once aligned tightly with the religious establishment, the monarchy gradually moved to curtail clerical power — especially under Saudi Arabia’s young visionary Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In 2018,  under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia ended the ban on women driving — a watershed reform that the grand mufti eventually supported.

The University of Novarra’s Naomi Moreno, pens a piece on Saudi reform saying it might be being more for optics than for real change within: “While some perceive the crown prince’s actions to be a genuine move towards reforming Saudi society, several indicators point to the possibility that MBS might have more practical reasons that are only tangentially related to progression for progression’s sake. As the thinking goes, such decrees may have less to do with genuine reform, and more to do with improving an international image to deflect from some of the kingdom’s more controversial practices, both at home and abroad. A number of factors drive this public scepticism.”

Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030” supervised by Sheikh Abdulaziz has also pushed massive economic liberalization, from Saudi Aramco’s controversial IPO to the multibillion-dollar mega-city NEOM. While any PR material put out by Saudi Arabia’s development companies, owned and operated by the House of Saud, tout sustainability objectives, no third party organizations or journalists can verify any claims.

Eco Branding or Environmental Boondoggle?

The grand mufti’s declining influence coincided with Saudi Arabia rebranding itself as a global hub for tourism and sustainability, no doubt advised to them by well-paid consultants and architects eager for multi-million, even billion dollar contracts. Ultra-luxury resorts are being marketed as eco-destinations across the Red Sea and virgin islands, even as construction threatens pristine habitats. See Shebara.

From coral reefs to fragile desert ecosystems, critics argue that these projects risk becoming environmental boondoggles — glossy green branding masking ecological disruption. The dynamic mirrors other regional tragedies, such as the controversial Qatari-backed resort development on Assomption Island near the Aldabra Atoll.

“Sheikh Abdulaziz served the faith and the nation with dedication,” the Saudi Royal Court said in its obituary statement. Yet his legacy remains contested: a staunch defender of Wahhabi orthodoxy who presided over a society that — under royal command — shifted toward liberalization, consumerism, and grand “eco” visions for the future.

As Saudi Arabia accelerates its transformation, the passing of its top cleric who memorized the Qu’ran at age 10 underscores the changing face of religious authority and perhaps tolerance in a kingdom increasingly defined by megaprojects, oil wealth, and the House of Saud’s push to rebrand itself for a post-oil world.

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Toray Industries from Japan announces it will supply the membranes for a new reverse osmosis desalination plant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will be the Kingdom’s first seawater reverse osmosis  desalination plant using clean energy under a public-private-partnership (PPP) structure. 

The Yanbu 4 desalination plant is located 100 miles of Saudi’s Madinah province, near the town of Ar Rayyis. With the production capacity of 450,000 cubic meters per day of potable water once it is completed, the plant will supply drinking water to the Makkah and  Madinah regions respectively. This is where millions of Muslims go on a Hajj pilgrimage. Good green news in advance of Ramadan which starts next week. 

Toray will supply the RO elements  and provide technical services and will help alleviate water shortages not  only in Makkah and Madinah regions but in the Middle East and North Africa.

Over the years, Toray has expanded RO membrane sales, production, and technical  support to help resolve global water issues. Applications extend from desalination and  waste water reclamation to industrial usage. The aggregate water production capacity of  Toray RO membranes is 120,000,000 cubic meters per day. That is enough to serve the  water needs of 840 million people. 

Providing access to clean water is pivotal to the Toray Group Sustainability Vision,  representing a roadmap to the World as Envisioned by Toray Group in 2050, and embodies Toray Vision 2030, through which the Group pursues sound, sustainable growth.  

Toray will continue to provide RO membranes and other advanced membrane  technologies and strengthen technical services to cater to local demand. It will thereby  help resolve water issues in the Middle East and other regions in which industrial and  population expansions will likely boost water demand. 

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On the road to Mecca in Saudi Arabia four hundred years ago, one could stop at a professional sorcerer: it seems that Muslim pilgrims walking from Cairo in Egypt to Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula would make a stop at these professional sorcerers. Dinns are a real thing in Islam, so beware if you cross one when out on a pilgrimage or if one enters your home. This guide may help you get the dinns out.

You know about the Evil Eye and hamsa, hamsa, hamsa for keeping it away? It’s an old practice in the Middle East. Finding some sources to superstitions are the strange magical tools found along pilgrim routes and described by Israeli researchers in the Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World. The researchers found stones and sculptures, some broken, and guess these objects were used in magical rituals carried out in order to ward off the evil eye, to heal diseases and more.

According to the researchers, “This discovery reveals that people in the Early Ottoman Period—just as today—consulted popular sorcerers, alongside the formal belief in the official religion.”

Itamar Taxel of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Uzi Avner of the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center, and Nitzan Amitai-Preiss of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were involved in the study that looked at the objects found in the Eilat region in the 1990s.

The group of objects is associated with rituals or ceremonies and comprises predominantly dozens of fragments of clay globular rattles, mostly similar to table tennis balls, containing small stones, that sound when the rattle was shaken. There were 2 miniature votive incense altars found, a small figurine of a naked woman or a goddess with raised hands, a characteristic feature of deities or priests; a few other figurines, and crystal pebbles.

The examination of the clay used for the ceramic objects has shown that they came from Egypt.

This is the first time that such a large assemblage of ritual objects of this kind has been found, and it is even more unique at a temporary site and not a permanent settlement.

The magical objects were found next to the Pilgrimage Road (Darb al-Hajj, in Arabic) that led from Cairo, crossed the Sinai Peninsula, and continued in the region of Eilat to the town of Aqaba, and then crossed the Arabian Peninsula on the way to Hajj in Mecca and Medina. This route was in use from the first centuries after the rise of Islam, from the 7th century to the 19th century.

“The spot of these artifacts next to the camping site, and the comparison of the artifacts to those known in the Muslim world, as well as the fact that these artifacts were found together as a group, lead to the understanding that they were used in magical rituals,” the researchers announce, adding:

“The artifacts were found broken, and they may even have been purposely broken in the ceremonies. It seems that these rituals were carried out at the site by one or several people who specialized in popular magical ceremonies. From the literary sources, we know that there was a demand for magical rituals among people from different strands of society. Such rituals were carried out daily alongside the formal religious rituals—including in the Muslim world—and it is probable that the pilgrims making their way to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina were no exception,” they add.

The Darb el-Haj road will be part of tourism and educational activities in Israel showing how cultures past lived their lives in the Holy Land.

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Travel to Mecca and Medina is simply cancelled this year by Saudi Arabia over fears that the coronavirus will spread. Millions of Muslims make the pilgrimage every year. Cancelling foreigners from travelling to the holiest sites in Islam is considered an extraordinary decision, and not one we have ever seen before, even during MERS, Ebola fears at Hajj, a SARS breakouts and alarm and the occasional stampede.

In fact more people have been killed at Hajj during a stampede that all of the people affected by coronavirus so far. The latest deadliest stampede killed more than 2000 people in 2015:

Saudi Arabia does not want an outbreak like Iran so the oil-rich monarchy cancelled Hajj last week. The center of the western East breakout is Iran in the Shia city of Qom where the faithful kiss and touch a shrine every year.

Watch Video of the shrine lick in Qom:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=wadsf-1x4LU%3Fwmode%3Dopaque%26start%3D0

“Saudi Arabia renews its support for all international measures to limit the spread of this virus and urges its citizens to exercise caution before travelling to countries experiencing coronavirus outbreaks,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement announcing the decision.

“We ask God Almighty to spare all humanity from all harm.”

Previous epidemics during Hajj

Disease outbreaks have been a concern in the past and we have covered the SARS and MERS outbreaks as they spread, offering tips to stay out of harm’s way.

Hajj, the journey to Mecca and Medina is required of all Muslims once in their life, if they are able. Al Jazeera reported that in 632 pilgrims fought of malaria; then there was cholera in 1821 killing 20,000 pilgrims. Cholera again in 1865 killed 15,000 and then spread viciously around the world.

The virus that causes the illness named COVID-19 has infected more than 80,000 people globally, mainly in China. In the Middle East, the hardest hit nation is Israel.

Israel has clamped down on travel into Israel and people returning from European countries, China, Japan, are sent to self-isolate or quarantine. Events for the upcoming holiday of Purim are cancelled, like the annual parade in Holon.

In Bahrain, which confirmed 33 cases as of Thursday last week, the authorities stopped all flights to Iraq and Lebanon.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said there were no immediate plans to quarantine Iranian cities but acknowledged it may take “one, two or three weeks” to get control of the virus.

Related: Why Muslims don’t drink alcohol

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Recognizing the value of authentic handmade crafts sought after by tourists in particular, not to mention the job opportunities that accompany such a vibrant cottage industry, Morocco sought assistance from America’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to resettle an entire community of coppersmiths and tanners in a modernized complex that has less of an environmental impact on the Sebbou River. 

The new Ain Nokbi handicraft complex in Fez, one of the oldest Islamic centers in the world, was partially constructed as an antidote to the severely contaminated Sebbou River.

Previously, byproducts of the Lalla Yeddouna Square craft center, where men have been tanning hides and working copper for hundreds of years, ran directly into the city’s water supply – causing a tremendous hazard.

Suggestions to clean up the ancient medina were met with cries of protest, and understandably so. Despite their environmental impact, copper and leather crafts that have sustained thousands of families that have grown up alongside this UNESCO world heritage site.

Instead of dispossessing the craftsmen altogether, a more sophisticated urban intervention was necessary.

“The complex includes 235 copper ware production units, three areas with 272 workshops dedicated to sub-contractor craftsmen, including 78 workshops for craftsmen of the Lalla Yeddouna Square who area beneficiaries of the relocation,” according to Bernama – Malaysia’s national news agency.

A market for raw leather and a traditional tannery were also built, giving artisans a much-needed boost that will allow them to improve the quality of their crafts.

MCC and Morocco essentially split the cost of the Ain Nokbi handicraft complex in half.

Other historical sites in the city, such as Chemmayine, Sbitriyine, Staouniyine and El Barka fondouk, also received an upgrade as part of the restoration project, according to Bernama.

A synagogue has also been restored as part of a national plan to ensure all of Morocco’s synagogues are upgraded out of deference to country’s longstanding Jewish history.

This project generated 1,250 jobs.

Image of Fez tannery © Barbara Blanchard for UNESCO WHC 

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There have been two recent cases of a mysterious SARS-like virus linked to Saudi Arabia. It killed one of its victims from Saudi Arabia. The second who is still alive travelled through the country.

The unknown mystery virus which is not Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (or SARS) which killed 800 people worldwide in 2003, is similar to SARS and is raising concern ahead of the Muslim Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. The new virus can cause rapid kidney failure and with the upcoming Muslim Hajj pilgrimage planned for next month in Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning Saudi organizers to be vigilant.

Pilgrams have started flowing into Mecca (some even by bike!), the world’s largest annual pilgrimage, and living in close quarters these millions of pilgrims are put at risk for contagious diseases.

“Though it is a very different virus to SARS, given the severity of the two confirmed cases so far, WHO is engaged in further characterizing the novel coronavirus,” the  WHO, a UN-run organization writes. “As such, international efforts are being stepped up across all WHO six regions to ensure an appropriate and effective response with a WHO specialist team in daily contact with more than a dozen international and regional technical partners.”

WHO reports that as of September 25, 2012, there have been no additional cases of acute respiratory syndrome with renal failure due to infection with a novel coronavirus. The organization is also looking for a network of laboratories that can provide expertise on coronaviruses for countries should an epidemic arise.

On September 22, 2012, it was the United Kingdom which informed WHO of a case of acute respiratory syndrome with travel history to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The case is of previously healthy, 49 year-old male Qatari national that presented with symptoms on 3 September 2012 with travel history to Saudi Arabia several days prior to onset of illness. On September 7 he was admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha, Qatar.

On 11 September, he was transferred to the UK by air ambulance from Qatar. The Health Protection Agency of the UK (HPA) conducted laboratory testing and subsequently confirmed the presence of the novel coronavirus.

The HPA compared the sequencing of the virus isolate from the 49 year-old Qatari national with that of a virus sequenced previously by the Erasmus University Medical Centre, Netherlands. This latter isolate was obtained from lung tissue of a fatal case earlier this year in a 60 year-old Saudi national.

If you are travelling to Mecca next month, download this health advisory issued by WHO (PDF).

Image of prayer at Mecca from Shutterstock

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A Californian jogs to the beach.  Coming towards him on the sidewalk is a Texan. Unless one steps aside they’ll collide. Quick: which way does the jogger move? If this is in Europe or the USA, heavy odds he moves to his right. In Asia (with Asians), the slide would likely be left. A crazy-making observation, and it’s not connected to driving: Irish drive on the left side of the road, but they’ll step to the right on the pavement.

The folks at Berlin’s Max Planck Institute (MPI) say this behavior is based on an improbable marriage of psychology and mathematical probability.  When we correctly guess another’s intentions, we get a positive subconscious boost. We’ll probably choose the same move when the same situation arises; get another subliminal “high-five”.

Subconsciously, we record these near-misses. We adopt a directional bias. It becomes habit. Whether it’s right or left doesn’t matter.  We’re suckers for Pavlovian conditioning.

Cars are constrained forms of transport: speed limits, travel lanes.  By comparison, walking seems flexible and self-controlled.  There’s that tricky “perception” thing again. Walkers are influenced by physical constraints and by other pedestrians, who turn out to be highly predictable.

Mehdi Moussaid of MPI and Dirk Helbing of Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETHZ), theorize and model pedestrian patterns under endless scenarios. Understanding national tendencies to step in different directions is useful for organizers of events like this summer’s Olympics or the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. When people convene from around the glode, they bring personal sports preferences and equally ingrained crowd behavior.  Understanding people flows makes for safer events.

Without a common reflex to move aside, collisions increase. Cultural biases go beyond a preference to steer left or right. Nationalities have different “personal space” and adjust walking to maintain that comfortable distance. Some don’t mind bumping into you; others are appalled at contact.

International walking speeds are similar in thin crowds; but when density increases, speeds vary.  Variables could slow pedestrian passage to a tension-building crawl.

In 1995, physicists designed a computer model that assumed people are attracted by things (destinations) and repelled by things (pedestrians blocking their way).  Experiments allowed them to reliably predict self-organizing crowd patterns which they could next analyze in real crowd situations.

They observed that dense crowds spontaneously split into lanes that allow efficient movement in opposing directions, allowing us to simply follow the person ahead instead of fighting through a mob.

When opposing flows intersect (imagine the entrance of a busy cafe), movement momentarily stops.  As people leave, pressure on the exit line drops, traffic lessens, with greater space between each exiting person. An opportunity opens for those wanting to enter.  They’ll push in until pressure on their side of the flow is relieved.  A series of alternating bursts of opposing traffic flow results.

Dynamics vary based on the crowd.

About 70% of a crowd consists of groups, and groups have more “sticking power” than individuals, affecting flows.  If you can see your destination in the distance, you’ll tend to take shortcuts through the crowd to get there. Seemingly random realities will affect overall crowd behavior.

Thin crowds have a constant flow. People in high density crowds tend to shorten their stride, periodically stop to avoid collisions, creating a stop-and-go pattern. Very dense crowds risk developing “crowd turbulence”, where people can’t control spacing between one another. Then powerful physical forces become chaotic: if someone falls, the void they create fills with other bodies.  People are trampled; stampeding occurs.

I was in such a crowd at a NYC parade.  My husband and I left a pizza parlor with our toddler in his stroller and were swept into a wave of partiers headed to Fifth Avenue. Easier to go with the flow than attempt a reversal, but on Fifth, blocked by  barricades, the crowd slowed and quickly condensed. I could smell the cologne on the guy stalled in front of me, but the guy behind kept pressing forward.  Real panic as we watched our stroller get swallowed by this mob.  Strangers helped lift it above our heads and passed our son like a concert balloon above the crush. Never been so frightened, straining to keep him in view.  A few moved barricades relieved some pressure. We found our kid, lounging in the stroller, enjoying his slice.

Computer simulations help anticipate crowd action and can gauge behavior in emergency evacuations.  A primary danger is that people will herd towards a single exit, inciting that disastrous crowd turbulence effect. Flow analysis helps spot where crowding will likely occur.  Once potential congestion points are identified, more sophisticated models are used to “cause and effect” architectural designs. Experimenting with physical forms, sound, and adaptable lighting will change flow patterns; alternatively attracting or repelling people from their directional target.

The Hajj, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, is an opportunity to put this science through its paces. Millions of pilgrims make the journey; Hajj has experienced fatal stampedes.

Saudi authorities used crowd consultants to change the layout of the Jamarat Bridge, where pilgrims perform a ritual of throwing stones at three pillars. Enforcing one-way bridge passage improves pedestrian safety.  Redesigning the pillars’ shape allows people to pitch stones from more locations, effectively disperses the crowd.

Paul Townsend of Crowd Dynamics, a consultancy with Hajj experience, says risks remain significant.  Hajj presents unique challenges.  It’s impossible to know how many pilgrims will turn up.  Then there’s the spiritual focus of the crowd.

“Hajj pilgrims have the attitude that, if I die there it is God’s will,” says Townsend in an interview with The Economist. “There is a willingness to get more and more densely packed in the space.” Scientists can model many aspects of pedestrian behavior, but religious fervor adds an unpredictable element.

Scientific patterning should gelp reduce future crowd disasters.  The real trick is to avoid serious crowding in the first place.

Image of Hajj pilgrims by AHMAD FAIZAL YAHYA from Shutterstock

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After the hustle and bustle of Tunisia’s capital medina dies down, the kids come out to play – in the trash! A large open area just a few blocks from the main tourist attraction, a space between two buildings has been converted into an unofficial dump full of disused toilets, chemicals, and all manner of organic and recyclable waste.

Compared to Egypt, Tunisia has a 5 star waste management system but lags when compared to European cities. In 2009, 10 landfills serviced 10 million people. But now, with help from World Bank funds, nine new landfills are being created throughout the country and a 5th cell will be added to one in Tunis. Check out our photos of just one of 400 uncontrolled dumps in the country.

2.25 Million Tonnes of Trash Annually

A 2010 waste management report released by ANGed, the government office responsible for ensuring the most expedient treatment of waste in Tunisia, shows that the country produces approximately 2.25 million tonnes of waste each year.

Of this, 70% is properly disposed of in regulated landfills, although government officials then acknowledged that there were virtually no recycling or compositing facilities equipped with diverting unnecessary waste.

Municipalities are responsible for paying 20% of the costs of trash collection, while the state takes care of the rest, but many rural areas lack the funds necessary to fulfill these obligations. This was before the Jasmine Revolution and before the inexperienced ruling Islamic party won power in the country’s first fair elections.

Many secular Tunisians on the street have voiced concern that the ruling party does a lot of talking but less acting; they also worry how relatively well-equipped municipal programs will fare under the Islamic party’s control.

Arab Spring Funds

Yet one side effect of the Arab Spring is the western world’s eagerness to support what they hope will be a democratic process. Case in point: the World Bank has committed to a USD 22 million loan that will help ANGed to improve its outdated infrastructure.

Unmanaged waste at unofficial dumps release methane gas and create a breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies. Plus, it’s a public health concern when children are running through dumps full of improperly disposed chemicals and other hazardous materials, not to mention that chasing balls through heaps of trash can’t be fun for anyone.

But at least the issue is being addressed. We see ANGed on the streets every night clearing the day’s accumulated litter – particularly in areas frequented by tourists, and although downtown Avenue Habib Bourguiba can get cruddy at times, overall it’s a pleasant place to go for a stroll.

Let’s hope Cairo will take cues from Tunis!

More on Waste Management in the Middle East and North Africa:

Dubai Malls That Fail to Recycle Waste Will be Fined

Empower to Cool Dubai With Recycled Sewage

How to Handle 30 Million Tonnes of Agricultural Waste in Egypt?

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Today’s pilgrims to Medina are way cooler than their predecessors thanks to sun shelters surrounding Islam’s second-holiest mosque.

Al-Masjid al-Nabawī,  the second mosque built by the Prophet Mohammed, is one of the world’s largest. But continual expansion over the centuries hasn’t kept pace with the increasing swell of Hajj pilgrims who congregate each year in its courtyards.

With summer temperatures exceeding 120 degrees F, these marble-floored spaces can be punishing.  A dual challenge emerged: how to improve the mosque’s natural micro-climate without destroying its architectural character. The solution was to plant a forest of umbrellas.

German designers, SL-Rasch, in collaboration with Sefar Architecture (links to PDF), conceived a landscape of high-tech sunscreens that span the 150,000 square meter forecourts, a total area larger than the mosque’s footprint.  The 250 convertible umbrellas, each 20 meters tall, are sized to fill the courts’ proportions, converting the open plazas into fully covered outdoor rooms.

Like blooming flowers, umbrellas are programmed to fold and unfold in minutely delayed sequence to avoid collision between their moving parts. Their near-silent operation is automatically aligned with changes in daily temperature. They open each morning, creating a translucent ceiling, and retract each evening in less than three minutes, leaving a forest of 250 elegantly detailed posts towering over expansive public spaces.

In summer, the open umbrellas provide daytime shading and reflect away much of the sun’s radiant energy.  When closed at night, they allow residual heat absorbed by the stone floors and walls to escape back into the atmosphere. The process is reversed in winter.  When temperatures are relatively low, umbrellas are closed during the day to allow winter sun to warm the site, and opened at night to retain heat near ground level.

The structural posts are multi-functional.  They channel infrequent rain towards the center  of each column, which is connected to the building drainage system. Lamps in the column capitals provide nightime illumination.

This project has successfully reduced the courtyard’s ambient daytime temperature by 14 degrees F.  Increasing bodily comfort allows pilgrims to focus on more spiritual concerns.

Twenty years ago, SL-Rasch created another solution to the climate/crowd dilemma. 

Embracing three sides of the Prophet’s Mosque, the King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz extension provided a new 112,000 square meter area for outdoor assembly during Hajj.  Innovative “sliding” domes were devised to protect the plaza from intense sunlight and heat, while providing natural light and ventilation, in a fully flexible way.

The mosque itself is air-conditioned. Lowering temperatures in the surrounding courtyards reduces cooling demand inside. Shading the courtyards accomplishes this, plus provides comfortable areas for the pilgrims outside.

The sliding domes, installed on raised rails, are moved over the open spaces to create shade in the hot season.  At night, they can be slid back into “parked position” over the roofs immediately adjacent to each courtyard.  As with the newer umbrellas, the process is reversed in cooler seasons.

Each dome is a sandwich made of a carbon-glass/fiber and epoxy filling with ceramic tiles integrated on top and an undersurface of intricately decorated wood laminate. Domes are edged in artificial stone to match the roof cornice of the mosque.  A computerized control system glides the hefty forms quietly into place. The dome project was awarded Best Innovation prize by the International Association for Automation and Robotics in 1993.

Green Prophet eagerly looks forward to what comes next from this ingenious facility, as it blends technology with antiquity to meet the needs of its growing congregation.

Umbrella images via Sefar Architects; Dome image by Premiere Composite Technologies, LLC

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Dozens of gleaming white tents form a bold roofline covering 120 acres of passenger services; sustainable magnificence created by visionary architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill over thirty years ago. Located in Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia, the terminal serves as a temporary city for millions of pilgrims destined for Mecca to take part in the annual Hajj.

The world’s 1.7 billion Muslims are all encouraged to undertake the pilgrimage, and approximately 0.01 percent heed the call each year. With increasingly accessible air travel, the number of hajjis – or pilgrims – grows annually,  now over 1.5 million.

A human tide rolls into the airport as pilgrims fly in from around the world before travelling by road to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The crush returns as Hajj concludes. The entire cycle occurs in a matter of weeks.

Crowd dynamics in Mecca led to stampedes in 2004 and 2005, killing 244 and 360 people, respectively. Safe and efficient handling of this eclectic population is a logistical challenge with critical risks.

Terminal plans hatched in the mid-‘60’s were mothballed in the decade after the 1967 Six Day War.

In 1974,  SOM’s superstar design team led by Bengalese-born engineer Fazlur Kahn and American architect Gordon Bunshaft resumed work on the terminal, part of an ambitious airport Master Plan. Initially designed as a fully enclosed building (Edward Durrell Stone, modern architecture legend, consulted during early planning), this new design team had a flash of contextual insight and determined that a traditional air-conditioned terminal wasn’t ideal for the desert site, nor for the unique passenger demographic.

They played with Arabian imagery of desert tents, billowing fabric. In the wake of the moonwalk, they experimented with space-age materials. Tent-like shapes, made of Teflon-coated fiberglas (resistant to heat, humidity and sun-damage), suggested an open-air environment. Kahn’s radically innovative structural design allowed for long-span open spaces.

Two symmetrical sections of tent “modules”, framed by towering pylons, are separated by a landscaped mall.  Steel cables weave between the elements, suspending the tents and eliminating clunky roof supports. The tents cover the air-conditioned arrival buildings, sited along terminal edges and housing security, check-in, toilets and shops.

The tents are the showstopper, capable of accommodating 80,000 people at any time.

The white tents deflect heat and diffuse natural daylight into interiors. Their conical shape creates a chimney effect, cooling interiors with minimal mechanical assistance. When outside air burns at 120 degrees F, inside stays a balmy 75.

The designers understood these travelers’ needs. Tucked below the tents is a mosque. And gathering areas where pilgrims can meet their tour groups. There are private spaces for changing into ritual garments and performing ablutions. Travellers trade goods along the pilgrimage route and seek mementos of their Arabian experience, so SOM integrated a traditional market (souk) into the design.

Completed in 1981, the Hajj Terminal received that year’s Progressive Architecture award. In 1983 it scored an American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Honor Award and the 1983 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. In 2009, it received the AIA Twenty-Five Year award for its architectural design of “enduring significance”.

The AIA explained, “This project exemplifies the power of a clear idea. With a very simple bay repeated quite beautifully, they set the standard for many airports since.

“The architects created a highly sustainable project well ahead of the green movement. The terminal presents a sense of place, ecology, economy of means, and culture – not imposing on but learning from the local culture and environment. The brilliant and imaginative design of the roofing system met the awesome challenge of covering this vast space with incomparable elegance and beauty.”

Airport terminals evolve. Functional hangers to protect travelers from weather have morphed into ersatz shopping malls.   A place to check luggage, then navigate increasingly difficult security hurdles.  Run the gauntlet of duty-free; grab an overpriced bite; conduct impromptu business via wireless gadgetry; and eventually board a flight.  Terminals have become a car-to-plane conduit, designed so we shop every step of the way.  Can you name a new terminal that provides a real sense of place?

Last week, Frommers.com named this aviation old-timer as one of the best terminals in the world, based on stellar performance in key operational metrics such as on-time departures, cleanliness, and ease of travel to and from city center.

High functionality coupled with environmental smarts, wrapped in a gorgeous skin: Hajj Terminal is a timeless beauty.

Watch the vintage film on the creation of the Hajj Terminal

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