country masjid al-qiblatayn
___MASK23___ , is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea . One of the oldest cities in the world , ___MASK23___ was named as "" Urusalima "" on ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets , probably meaning " City of Shalem " after a Canaanite deity , during the early Canaanite period ( approximately 2400 BCE ). During the Israelite period , significant construction activity in ___MASK23___ began in the 9th century BCE ( Iron Age II ), and in the 8th century the city developed into the religious and administrative center of the Kingdom of Judah . It is considered a holy city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism , Christianity and Islam . Masjid al - Qiblatayn ( Arabic :    ) , or the Mosque of the Two Qiblas , is a mosque in Medina that is historically important for Muslims as the place where , after the Islamic prophet Muhammad received the command to change the direction of prayer ( qibla ) from ___MASK23___ to Mecca , the entire congregation led by a companion changed direction in prayer . Thus it uniquely contained two prayer niches ( mihrabs ) . Recently the mosque was renovated ; the old prayer niche facing ___MASK23___ was removed , and the one facing Mecca was left . The Qiblatayn Mosque is among the three earliest mosques in Islam ' s history , along with Quba Mosque and Al - Masjid al - Nabawi . The Kaaba (' , " The Cube "), also referred as Al Kaaba Al Musharrafah "' ( The Holy Kaaba ), is a building at the center of Islam ' s most sacred mosque , Al - Masjid al - Haram , in Mecca , al - Hejaz , ___MASK8___ . It is the most sacred site in Islam . It is considered the " House of Allah " and has a similar role to the Tabernacle and Holy of Holies in Judaism . Wherever they are in the world , Muslims are expected to face the Kaaba when performing " salat " ( prayer ). From any point in the world , the direction facing the Kaaba is called the " qibla ". Muhammad ( c . 570 CE  8 June 632 CE ) is the central figure of Islam and widely regarded as its founder by non - Muslims . He is known as the " Holy Prophet " to Muslims , almost all of whom consider him to be the last prophet sent by God to mankind to restore Islam , believed by Muslims to be the unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam , Abraham , Moses , Jesus , and other prophets . Muhammad united ___MASK12___ into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings , practices , and the Quran , formed the basis of Islamic religious belief . The Qibla (" direction "), also transliterated as Qiblah , Qibleh , Kiblah , Kble or Kibla , is the direction that should be faced when a Muslim prays during " salah " prayers . It is fixed as the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca . Most mosques contain a wall niche , known as mihrab , that indicates the Qiblah . Most multifaith prayer rooms will also contain a Qibla , although usually less standardized in appearance than one would find within a mosque . The Hajj ("" " pilgrimage ") is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca , the most holy city of the Muslims , and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey , and can support their family during their absence . It is one of the five pillars of Islam , alongside Shahadah , Salat , Zakat , and Sawm . The Hajj is the largest annual gathering of people in the ___MASK55___ . The state of being physically and financially capable of performing the Hajj is called " istita ' ah ", and a Muslim who fulfills this condition is called a " mustati ". The Hajj is a demonstration of the solidarity of the Muslim people , and their submission to God ( Allah ). The word Hajj means " to intend a journey ", which connotes both the outward act of a journey and the inward act of intentions . The Dead Sea ( lit . Salt Sea ), is a salt lake bordered by ___MASK87___ to the east and Israel and Palestine to the west . Its surface and shores are below sea level , Earth ' s lowest elevation on land . The Dead Sea is deep , the deepest hypersaline lake in the world . With 34 . 2 % salinity ( in 2011 ), it is 9 . 6 times as salty as the ocean , and one of the world ' s saltiest bodies of water . This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which plants and animals cannot flourish , hence its name . The Dead Sea is long and wide at its widest point . It lies in the ___MASK87___ Rift Valley and its main tributary is the ___MASK87___ River . The Hejaz , also Al - Hijaz ("", literally " the Barrier "), is a region in the west of present - day ___MASK8___ . The region is so called as it separates the land of the Najd in the east from the land of Tihamah in the west . It is also known as the " Western Province ." It is bordered on the west by the Red Sea , on the north by Jordan , on the east by the Najd , and on the south by Asir . Its main city is Jeddah , but it is probably better known for the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina . As the site of Islam ' s holiest places , the Hejaz has significance in the Arab and Islamic historical and political landscape . The Judaean Mountains or Judaean Hills (" Harei Yehuda ", " Jibal Al Khalil "), is a mountain range in ___MASK97___ and the West Bank where ___MASK23___ and several other biblical cities are located . The mountains reach a height of . The Judean Mountains can be separated to a number of sub - regions , including the Mount Hebron ridge , the ___MASK23___ ridge and the Judean slopes . These mountains formed the heartland of the Kingdom of Judah , where the earliest Jewish settlements emerged . Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ , who serves as the focal point for the religion . It is the ___MASK55___ ' s largest religion , with over 2 . 4 billion followers , or 33 % of the global population , known as Christians . Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as the Messiah ( the Christ ) was prophesied in the Old Testament . The Madinah Region (" Al - Madnah al - Munawarah ") is a region of ___MASK8___ , located on the country ' s west side , along the Red Sea coast . It has an area of 151 , 990 km² and a population of 1 , 777 , 973 ( 2010 Census ), subdivided into seven governorates (" muafaat "): Medina (', " the radiant city "; or , ', " the city "), also transliterated as Madnah , is a city in the Hejaz region of ___MASK8___ that is also the capital of the Al Madinah Region . The city contains al - Masjid an - Nabawi (" the Prophet ' s Mosque "), which is the burial place of the Islamic prophet Muhammad , and is the second - holiest city in Islam after Mecca . ___MASK8___ , officially known as the Kingdom of ___MASK8___ ( KSA ), is an Arab sovereign state in Western Asia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula . With a land area of approximately , ___MASK8___ is geographically the fifth - largest state in Asia and second - largest state in the Arab world after Algeria . ___MASK8___ is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north , Kuwait to the northeast , Qatar , Bahrain , and the United Arab Emirates to the east , Oman to the southeast , and Yemen to the south . It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba . It is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast , and most of its terrain consists of arid desert or barren landforms . Mecca or Makkah ("" ) is a city in the Hejaz region of ___MASK8___ that is also capital of the Makkah Region . The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level . Its resident population in 2012 was roughly 2 million , although visitors more than triple this number every year during the " hajj " (" pilgrimage ") period held in the twelfth Muslim lunar month of " Dhu al - Hijjah ". Islam (' ;) is a religion articulated by the Quran , a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God ('), and , for the vast majority of adherents , the teachings and normative example ( called the " sunnah ", composed of accounts called " hadith ") of Muhammad ( 570  8 June 632 CE ). It is the ___MASK55___ ' s second - largest religion and the fastest - growing major religion in the ___MASK55___ , with over 1 . 7 billion followers or 23 % of the global population , known as Muslims . Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion that upholds that God is one and incomparable and that the purpose of existence is to worship God . Muslims consider Muhammad to be the last prophet of God . Abraha ( also spelled Abreha ) ( died after AD 553 ; r . 525  at least 553 ), also known as ' Abraha al - Ashram ( Arabic :   ), was an Ethiopian general then the viceroy of southern ___MASK12___ for the Kingdom of Aksum , and later declared himself an independent King of Himyar . Abraha ruled much of present - day Yemen and Hijaz from at least 531 - 547 AD to 555 - 565 AD . Judaism ( from , derived from Greek , originally from Hebrew , " Yehudah ", " ___MASK77___ "; in Hebrew : , " Yahadut ", the distinctive characteristics of the Judean ethnos ) encompasses the religion , philosophy , culture and way of life of the Jewish people . Judaism is an ancient monotheistic religion , with the Torah as its foundational text ( part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible ), and supplemental oral tradition represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud . Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship that God established with the Children of Israel . With between 14 . 5 and 17 . 4 million adherents ___MASK14___ , Judaism is the tenth - largest religion in the world . Jeddah ( sometimes spelled " Jiddah " or " Jedda " " Jidda " ) is a city in the Hijaz Tihamah region on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western ___MASK8___ . It is the largest city in Makkah Province , the largest sea port on the Red Sea , and the second - largest city in ___MASK8___ after the capital city , Riyadh . With a population currently at 4 . 2 million people , Jeddah is an important commercial hub in ___MASK8___ . The Kingdom of ___MASK77___ (" Mamlekhet Yehudh ") was an Iron Age kingdom of the Southern Levant . The Hebrew Bible depicts it as the successor to a United Monarchy , but historians are divided about the veracity of this account . In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE the territory of ___MASK77___ appears to have been sparsely populated , limited to small rural settlements , most of them unfortified . ___MASK23___ , the kingdom ' s capital , likely did not emerge as a significant administrative centre until the end of the 8th century , prior to this archaeological evidence suggests its population was too small to sustain a viable kingdom . In the 7th century its population increased greatly , prospering under Assyrian vassalage ( despite Hezekiah ' s revolt against the Assyrian king Sennacherib ), but in 605 the Assyrian Empire was defeated , and the ensuing competition between the Twenty - sixth Dynasty of ___MASK56___ and the Neo - Babylonian Empire for control of the Eastern Mediterranean led to the destruction of the kingdom in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582 , the deportation of the elite of the community , and the incorporation of ___MASK77___ into a province of the Neo - Babylonian Empire . Canaan ( Northwest Semitic : ""; Phoenician :  ; Biblical Hebrew / Masoretic : ["; n  an ]") was a Semitic - speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC . In the Bible it corresponds to the Levant , in particular to the areas of the Southern Levant that provide the main setting of the narrative of the Hebrew Bible , i . e ., the area of ___MASK97___ , Philistia , ___MASK15___ , and other nations . ___MASK97___ , officially known as the State of ___MASK97___ , is a country in the ___MASK11___ , on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea . It has land borders with ___MASK21___ to the north , Syria to the northeast , Jordan on the east , the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west , respectively , and Egypt to the southwest . The country contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area . ___MASK97___ ' s financial and technology center is Tel Aviv , while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem , although the state ' s sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem is internationally unrecognized . The Makkah Region or Mecca Region ("") is the most populous region ( mintaqah ) in ___MASK8___ . It is located in western ___MASK8___ and has an extended coastline . It has an area of 153 , 128 km² and a population of 6 , 915 , 006 ( 2010 census ). Its capital is Mecca ( also transliterated as Makkah ), the holiest city in Islam , and its largest city is Jeddah , which is also ___MASK8___ ' s main port city . The third major city is Taif . Al - Masjid an - Nabaw ( Prophet ' s Mosque ) is a mosque established and originally built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad , situated in the city of Medina in ___MASK8___ . Al - Masjid an - Nabawi was the third mosque built in the history of Islam and is now one of the largest mosques in the world . It is the second - holiest site in Islam , after Masjid al - Haram in Mecca . It is always open , regardless of date or time .