Ka’bah in Makkah adorned with new covering

The Ka’bah was adorned with a new cover (Kiswa) on Friday. In an annual custom, the new black cloth was placed on top of the Ka’bah, at the center of the Grand Mosque, as about two million pilgrims converged on the nearby vast plains of Arafat in the climax of hajj.

Officials from the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques took off the old Kiswa and installed the new one, which is made of pure silk and gold threads. It costs more than SR20 million and is considered one of the most exquisite works of Islamic art.

The Kiswa is 14 meters high, to match the height of the Ka’bah, and 47 meters wide, enough to cover the four sides of Islam’s holiest site, which are not identical in dimension.

Its upper half is decorated with a 95-centimeter wide strip featuring verses from the Holy Qur’an, inscribed in gold plated silver thread, which weighs 120 kilograms. The Kiswa is made of five pieces. The fifth piece is the curtain of its door.

Nearly 650 kilograms of natural silk was required to make the Kiswa. The silk is imported, but the Kiswa is designed and tailored by more than 200 Saudi employees at a special factory set up by the Kingdom.

In the past, the Kiswa used to be sent by different Muslim countries. Every year, pieces of the old Kiswa are presented as gifts to Muslim countries and senior Muslim personalities.

Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, head of the Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques, said recently that the cover is completely manufactured in Saudi Arabia after it had previously been manufactured and transferred from Egypt or other countries.