The holiest city in Islam, birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, and site of the Kaaba — the point toward which 1.8 billion Muslims orient their daily prayers and to which they aspire to make the Hajj pilgrimage at least once in their lives.
Every day, five times a day, 1.8 billion people face the same direction. They are facing Mecca — a city in the Hejaz desert whose location has organized the daily bodily practice of more human beings than any other single point on earth.