MAKKAH — With the completion of the ongoing expansion by the next Ramadan, the Grand Mosque in Makkah will be able to accommodate a total of 1.85 million worshipers, it was announced at the ceremony to launch five giant expansion projects at the Grand Mosque on Saturday night. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman launched the five giant projects that are implemented as part of the third Saudi expansion of the Grand Mosque. The projects included the King Abdullah Expansion Structure covering on an area of 320,000 sq. meters with a capacity to accommodate 300,000 people, and courtyards expanded on a total area of 175,000 sq. meters with the capacity to accommodate 330,000 worshippers. The King also opened five pedestrian tunnels linking the Grand Mosque with the Jarwal and Hajoun areas. Four of these tunnels are meant for pilgrims and visitors while the fifth one is for emergency services and security forces. The tunnels have a total length of 5.3 km. The newly opened 4.6-km-long first ring road passes through the Central Haram Area. The King also opened buildings for service facilities that include electricity plants, reserve generators, water refrigeration facilities, disposal of trash, tanks, water pumping facilities and fire extinguishers. Speaking at the ceremony at Al-Safa Palace, Dr. Abdurrahman Al-Sudais, president of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque, said the expansion has increased the capacity of the Grand Mosque to accommodate more than 1,600,000 worshipers. The total area of the expanded structure is 1,470,000 square meters with 78 automatic gates on the ground floor surrounding the building. The opening and closing of these doors are remote controlled from an operation room. Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf said the newly opened King Abdullah Expansion Structure consists of six floors for worshippers. The expanded structure has 680 escalators, 24 lifts for people with special needs, and 21,000 toilets and ablution areas. He said the third Saudi expansion came as an extension of the previous expansions started by the late King Abdulaziz and followed by his sons — Saud, Faisal, Khaled and Fahd until the current expansion ordered by the late King Abdullah.
