Saudi Gazette Report

MAKKAH — The General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques has completed on Wednesday the annual customary procedure of raising the lower part of the cover (kiswa) of the Holy Kaaba by about three meters. The raised part of kiswa was covered with a white cotton cloth having a width of two and a half meters and length of 54 meters across all four sides.

This is in accordance with the plan for the Hajj season of 2024. The procedure of raising the Kaaba kiswa is carried out every year as a precautionary measure to prevent the pilgrims from damaging the kiswa as they tend to touch it during their tawaf (circumambulation around the Holy Kaaba) at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The procedure of raising the kiswa was carried out by 36 specialized Saudi technical personnel, equipped with 10 cranes. The kiswa of the Holy Kaaba is usually lifted in several phases. It starts with unscrewing the bottom of the cover from all sides, then separating the corners and followed by untying the bottom rope and removing it from the fixing rings, and after which the cloth is rolled upward.

The lanterns are then dismantled and the white cloth are put in place, after which the lanterns are reinstalled over the white cloth until the final phase of wrapping the lower part of the curtain of the Kaaba’s door.

The kiswa is wrapped around the Holy Kaaba with a height of three meters, parallel to it at a one-meter height difference.