Weather of Arabia - The Agency for Technical, Operational, Maintenance and Facilities Management, headed by the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques, carried out maintenance work on the walls of the Kaaba.
The maintenance included the 54 rings of fixing the garment, its re-gilding, and a complete examination of the Shazarwan marble surrounding the Kaaba and the Yemeni Corner. In preparation for changing the dress, Saturday, the first of Muharram 1444 AH.
The Under-General for Technical, Operational Affairs, Maintenance and Facilities Management, Eng. Sultan Al-Qurashi, explained that the agency undertakes the scheduled periodic and corrective maintenance work that is scheduled to be completed on a weekly, monthly and annual basis in the Grand Mosque to maintain the walls of the Kaaba from the accumulated salts - if any.
This also includes the work of plastering and painting with transparent epoxy, the maintenance of the battens of the Kaaba, the repair of cracks in the Yemeni corner, and the treatment of cracks in the edges of the Shazarwan due to the movement of the sizars during the work of lifting the dress of the Holy Kaaba.
And he indicated that the maintenance work includes patching the floors inside the Ismail stone and the first circle of the Kaaba, painting the wooden part of the door of Hajar Ismail and clearing the marble floors, as well as resetting the level of the bases of the fixing rings of the covering of the Kaaba.
In addition to carrying out periodic preventive maintenance works for the surface of the Holy Kaaba marble; To ensure the integrity of the marble placed on the surface of the Kaaba on an area of (80) square meters, and the absence of cracks and surface damage, in addition to the work of grouting to fill the spaces between the “Tasos” marble, which is a rare marble that is imported specifically for the Two Holy Mosques with several advantages, including reflecting light and heat.
The covering of the Kaaba is a piece of black silk on which verses from the Qur’an are engraved from gold water, following what the Prophet Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, and his companions did after him.
The kiswa consumes about 670 kilograms of raw silk that is dyed black, 120 kilograms of gold wire and 100 silver wires.” The cost of one dress is about 17 million Saudi riyals, equivalent to (4.53 million dollars).
On Saturday (A Muharram - 30 July), the old covering of the Kaaba will be lowered, and it will be covered with the new covering, which consists of four separate sides and the door curtain, where each of the four sides of the Kaaba will be raised separately, to the top of the Kaaba in preparation for its unfolding on the old side.
It is known that the covering or clothing of the Kaaba is changed on the morning of the Day of Arafat on the ninth of Dhul-Hijjah of each year, but this year the date of changing the clothing of the Kaaba was changed to be on the first of Muharram 1444 AH, instead of the month of Dhul-Hijjah.
The old kiswa is currently handed over to a committee of the Saudi government, which cuts it into small pieces, and then distributes them as gifts to dignitaries, states and embassies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It is displayed in the Ulu Mosque in the Turkish city of Bursa dating back to 1517, and it is in the same place where Sultan Selim I deposited it, as he obtained it from Egypt after the Ottoman conquest. It is the oldest complete covering of the Kaaba in its complete condition in the world.
In 1982, the Kingdom donated a piece to the United Nations, which is displaying it in the reception hall at the present time.
You may also be interested: Why are the curtains of the Kaaba raised during the Hajj season every year?
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