The Hajj
Every year about 2 million Muslims make the Hajj, this is a special pilgrimage (journey) to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Mecca is the city where the Prophet Muhammad was born and is the site of Islam’s holiest mosque, Masjid al-Haram. Have a look at the map below to see where Mecca is. For some people it is a very long way and may take them years to save up to afford to travel there.
All Muslims are expected to take the trip at least once in their lifetime. When they get there they travel to the Ka'aba, which looks like a large black cube and here they pray.
Do you remember our work on Mosques last week? Every Mosque has a semi-circular niche in the wall called a "mihrab" that indicates the direction of Mecca. Muslims face the mihrab when they pray. The direction towards Mecca is known as the "qibla".
What the two video clips below which explain a little more about Mecca. After watching Omar's trip to Mecca I would like you to write a postcard from Omar to his mother telling her all about the things he is getting up to on his trip. Try to include some of the key vocabulary from above (all the words in bold).