Mecca From Above

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station captured this photograph of the city of Mecca in western Saudi Arabia. Dark-colored roads and lighter-hued urban structures fill the valleys between rugged hills and mountains that appear in shades of orange and brown.

In the center of Mecca stands Al Masjid al Ḩarām (also called the Great Mosque of Mecca), identifiable by its large and intricate white stone structure. The Kaaba, the sacred Islamic site in the center of the mosque, is visible as a small cube. (It is more clearly visible in the high-resolution version of this image.) Even at night, the mosque is brightly lit and serves as a beacon to visitors.

Major roadways near the mosque appear to end abruptly upon meeting steep hillsides. These roads tunnel through the hills and continue toward and around the Great Mosque. Along the right side of the image, clusters of tents appear as white, rectangular plots. The tents are used during religious pilgrimages, such as Hajj, which in a typical year is performed by more than two million people.

Astronaut photograph ISS069-E-39069 was acquired on July 29, 2023, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a focal length of 1,150 millimeters. It is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit at NASA Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 69 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by Sara Schmidt, GeoControl Systems, Amentum JETS II Contract at NASA-JSC.