As part of the third phase of expansion at Makkah’s Grand Mosque, eighty new prayer halls were inaugurated

The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque reported that eighty additional prayer halls opened to worshipers for the first time during Ramadan this year as part of the Grand Mosque’s third phase of development.

The additional halls are on the ground and first floors, as well as the first and second mezzanine levels, according to Walid Al-Masoudi, director of the General Administration of the Third Saudi Expansion at the Grand Mosque. They are accessible by a multitude of entrances on the mosque’s northern, western, and eastern sides, as well as the main gate.

The additional facilities account for 95% of the entire capacity of prayer rooms inside the mosque’s part that contains them, which can now seat up to 300,000 worshippers. If the inner rooms are full, the northern courtyards can house an extra 280,000 worshipers, while the western courtyards can hold even more, according to Arab News.

During Ramadan, according to Al-Masoudi, the number of worshipers at the mosque grows, and teams are in place to guarantee that they can move about smoothly, find the new prayer spaces, and enter and exit the mosque securely.

All of the work is being carried out under the direct supervision of Mohammed Al-Jabri, the General Presidency’s under-secretary-general for services, field affairs, and environmental protection, and under the direction of the Presidency’s president, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, in accordance with the Kingdom’s leadership’s goals of providing the best quality of services for visitors to the Two Holy Mosques.

Gates 104, 106, 112, 173, 175, and 176 on the northern side, gates 114, 116, 119, 121, and 123 on the western side, and gates 162, 165, and 169 on the eastern side provide entrance to the new prayer rooms.