Inside The Kaaba

The small, cubed building known as the Kaaba may not rival skyscrapers in height or mansions in width, but its impact on history and human beings is unmatched. The Kaaba is the building towards which Muslims face five times a day, everyday, in prayer. This has been the case since the time of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) over 1400 years ago.


The Kaaba

The Size of the Kaaba:

The current height of the Kaaba is 39 feet, 6 inches and total size comes to 627 square feet.
The inside room of the Kaaba is 13x9 meters. The Kaaba's walls are one meter wide. The floor inside is 2.2 meters higher than the place where people perform Tawaf.

The ceiling and roof are two levels made out of wood. They were reconstructed with teak which is capped with stainless steel. The walls are all made of stone. The stones inside are unpolished, while the ones outside are polished.


Plan of the Kaaba

Cutout Diagram Showing Interior


What is inside the Kaaba?

Description 1

Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, the president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), had the opportunity to go inside the Kaaba in October 1998.
He described the following features:

There are two pillars inside (others report 3 pillars)
There is a table on the side to put items like perfume
There are two lantern-type lamps hanging from the ceiling
The space can accommodate about 50 people
There are no electric lights inside
The walls and floors are of marble
There are no windows inside
There is only one door
The upper inside walls of the kaaba were covered with some kind of curtain with the Kalima written on it.

Description 2

On January 18, 2003, Don Brown (Rahmatullah), the political and economic officer at the American Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, joined a group of Muslim diplomats resident in Saudi Arabia to perform the ritual ceremony of washing the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site. This was the first time an American diplomat had ever set foot inside the Kaaba, and Brown, an American Muslim, was deeply honored to have been included with his fellow Muslim diplomats for the event.

The visitors were led to the interior of the Kaaba, which Brown described as a simple but elegant rectangular, windowless room.

Floored with cool white marble, he said the building is immaculate and mostly hollow, except for three massive floor-to-ceiling Burmese teak wood columns with gilt footings.

Off-white marble covers the walls up to about two meters above the floor, above which is a finely brocaded green silk (almost exactly like the black silk Kiswa Cloth that covers the Kaaba’s exterior, but without the exquisite gold embroidery) covering reaching up the walls and the entire ceiling.

In addition, Arabic-inscribed marble plaques are set into the walls inside at eye-level, describing renovations made by previous custodians of the two Holy Mosques, according to Brown.

Hanging on a rod between the three columns are dozens of antiques, mostly gold dishes, cups, and containers donated over the centuries.

The Kaaba interior is a unique place in the world for Muslims in that one may pray in any direction and still be facing the Kaaba.

Once inside, all visitors independently performed individual prayers; some wept and some chatted quietly, all appreciating the deeply religious significance of the event.

Upon leaving the Kaaba, the diplomats were assailed by well wishers who wanted to shake their hands and touch their garments.

Brown said the experience was humbling, and something that he would remember for the rest of his life.

Description 3

This is the description from Wikipedia:-

It is made of granite from the hills near Makkah. The most current dimensions for the structure are: 15 m high (49') with sides measuring 10.5 m (34') by 12 m (39'). [Petersen, Andrew. Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London: Routledge, 1996. p.142.] It is covered by a black silk cloth decorated with gold-embroidered calligraphy. This cloth is known as the kiswah; it is replaced yearly.

The eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba contains the Black Stone or al-Ħajaru l-Aswad, which is generally thought to be a meteorite remnant.

Entrance to the inside of the Kaaba is gained through a door set 2.13 meters above the ground on the north-eastern wall of the Kaaba.

Inside the Kaaba, there is a marble floor. The interior walls are clad with marble half-way to the roof; tablets with Qur'anic inscriptions are inset in the marble.

The top part of the walls is covered with a green cloth decorated with gold embroidered Qur'anic verses. Lamps hang from a cross beam; there is also a small table for incense burners.

The building is believed to be otherwise empty. Caretakers perfume the marble cladding with scented oil, the same oil used to anoint the Black Stone outside.

Lock of the Kaaba

Sources:
http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/kaaba.htm
http://usembassy.state.gov/nigeria/wwwhxmar03f.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba#Reconstructions_of_the_Kaaba