We don’t have too much time in Madinah because of hotels being booked up, so we have to make the most of our time here. What does that mean? We have to see as much as Madinah Al Munawwarah has to offer in one single go. How would we do that? A bus tour, of course. We don’t usually do bus tours because we like seeing things on foot, but Madinah has a lot to see (as you’d expect from such a historical city) and it’s pretty spread out. So, let’s get going!

We walk down the same way as yesterday towards the Prophet’s Mosque. On our way we see the same sights as yesterday, just with fewer people. The bus tour starts right beside the Prophet’s Mosque. We get our ticket, get on the bus, and it’s time to go!

The tour should take us about two hours. Not bad. And it will give us a bunch of information about this important city, which we will try to pass on. So, as we start, let’s take a look at the itinerary.

Although this is the official map we got, we can’t actually do those two routes as the green one is shutdown when we visited. We think it’s because of this:

This is what we saw last night from ground level, but this higher vantage point really shows the scale of construction. If you missed it last night, this is for the expansion of the Prophet’s Mosque.

We then do a U-turn and head in the opposite direction to do the start of the green tour line. On our way we don’t see much, we’re just on the First Ring Road which circles the Prophet’s Mosque, but too far to see it. Our first highlight is seeing Al Hijaz Railway Station in the distance.

This is supposed to be one of the final stops on the tour… but because of construction they also don’t go that way. Maybe we will end up going for a visit though, who knows. Along with the museum (long horizontal building in the distance) you can see the Anbariya Mosque and a gigantic Saudi flag. 

Our next view is of the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque. 

We had to find the name online because it wasn’t part of the tour, just something we saw off in the distance. But, this is also the turn off for us to get back onto the tour route and get back towards the Prophet’s Mosque. We make it to the second stop on the tour (the first being where we started, the Prophet’s Mosque), Al-Baqi cemetery.

As we were here last night, we figured it wasn’t the best to take pictures of the cemetery itself (and you can’t see inside anyway) so instead you see the area in front of the cemetery (you can see the cemetery wall) with a corner of the Prophet’s Mosque in the distance. 

As we were already here, we will just repeat the basics again in case you didn’t read the other entries. Al-Baqi Cemetery is the first and oldest Muslim cemetery in Madinah and some of the closest relatives and companions of the Prophet are buried here. These include some of his wives, daughters, and some companions that defended Madinah in the Battle of al-Harra. This was a quick stop as it is probably faster to walk from stop 1 to stop 2 than to take the bus. Off we go to stop 3, Al Manakha Square.

Again, we’re still on the green route, so we only barely move a bit further, still faster to walk this. But, the height gives us a different angle to appreciate Al Ghamamah Mosque. Please allow us to repeat ourselves from last night… It is said that the Prophet Muhammed performed an Eid prayer at Al Ghamamah Mosque in 631 CE and offered Salat ul-Istasqa here when Madinah was going through a drought. It soon rained and that is why it has the name “Ghamamah,” which we are told means cloud.

As we start driving off to rejoin the red route, we’re told to quickly look behind us or we will miss this mosque, and we nearly did.

This is the Umar ibn al-Khattab Mosque. According to tradition it is where the second caliph of Islam, Umar ibn Khattab, met the Prophet. Umar ibn Khattab ended up being quite a historical figure. You already know he was the second caliph of Islam, but he also was a father-in-law and companion of the Prophet. Furthering his legacy, he was the first Muslim to openly pray at the Kaaba. This mosque is not far from the Prophet’s Mosque, but it is tucked away between modern buildings. Let’s see if we can get better pictures for you at a later point in time. 

We round the Prophet’s Mosque before turning back towards our hotel to start the part of the tour that we had not yet seen.

Stop number 5 (stop 4 is inaccessible) is the Uhud Battlefield. 

As you can see, we’re still pretty far and you can’t really see the mosque. But that’s okay, using your imagination we will explain a bit. 

The mosque that you can see just poking out in the distance is the Sayed Al-Shuhada Mosque. This mosque is placed in one of the important sites in the history of both Madinah and Islam as a whole. This is the site of the Battle of Uhud. 

Before we begin, as with most large historical information we give… we need to give a disclaimer… we’re 100% not experts and much of this information is from the tour itself, reading signs, and a bit of online research. So…

The Battle of Uhud is an important one to Islam because it was a battle between the Prophet and his muslim followers against the polytheistic Quraysh tribe on the outskirts of Madinah following the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah. It is seen as an important battle in a larger group of conflicts that, in the end, ensured that Islam continues to survive until the present. The battle is named after the mountain that it took place in front of, which can be seen in the above picture. The other important feature from the picture is the mound that is obscuring the mosque, which is Archers’ Hill. The name is pretty self-explanatory, and this is where the Prophet stationed his archers to help defend his forces from a more elevated position. They were not to leave this position until the Prophet said, but as you can guess as we’re telling you this, that didn’t happen. As the Prophet’s companions began winning the battle and the Quraysh started to retreat, the archers descended thinking that they had won. However, the Quraysh circled around and attacked from behind and killed 70 of the Prophet’s companions. These companions are now buried at this site, and Muslims from around the world now visit these graves and climb Archers’ Hill to observe the battlefield. Although the end of this battle, it would not be the end of the greater war, which we will get back to at a future stop. 

The next few stops are all commercial in nature. We drive through what may be a shopping district of Madinah where there are two bus stops for malls and small shops. Although we aren’t getting off, the tour tells us about the pride that the city takes in having many things that are made in Madinah for pilgrims to purchase and the great food that we can find in the region. At least it’s all local, we can get behind that! But we’re more interested in history than shopping while in Madinah, so we continue riding to the next stop, stop number 8, Al Qiblatain Mosque.

Now, if you speak Arabic or are a muslim, you already know the importance of this mosque. Its history is very particular and interesting, at least to us.

Al Qiblatain Mosque translates to ‘Mosque of the Two Qiblas’, with the Qibla being the direction of prayer. But, how does that make sense then? Originally the direction of prayer was towards Jerusalem (where Al Aqsa mosque now is). As such, this mosque had a mihrab (niche indicating direction of prayer) towards Jerusalem. However, the Prophet soon had a revelation while praying at Al Qiblatain Mosque that the qibla should instead be towards Makkah, where it has stayed ever since. How did this affect the mosque itself? It actually had two mihrabs, one towards Makkah and one towards Jerusalem. As such, it was one of the few mosques in the world to have two mihrabs. But, this did not last forever. As we believe we explained in a previous post… mosques don’t often survive unchanged forever. This is because it is believed that “whoever builds a mosque for the sake of Allah, … , Allah will build him a house in Paradise.” This means that many mosques are torn down and rebuilt with changing rulers and times. Why do we bring this up now? In 1987 Al Qiblatain Mosque was torn down and reconstructed, and only the qibla towards Makkah was kept. 

Although our picture isn’t the greatest, we hope you understand the importance of this great mosque. And we will try to come back and get a better picture, if time permits. Off we go to our next stop!

Stop number 9 is for the Trench Battlefield and the Seven Mosques. So, let’s start with the battle. The Battle of the Trench is the battle against the Quraysh after the Battle of Uhud from above. As the Prophet learned of the advancing Quraysh one of his companions, Salman the Persian, suggested to build a trench as their defence. The Prophet agreed, and He and the other Muslims started digging the trench to defend the northern end of Madinah. It is said that the trench was 3.75 km long, 6.75 m wide, and 5.25 m deep and was dug in a record 6 days. On the recording they said that even modern equipment would not be able to dig this trench this efficiently. When the Quraysh finally arrived at the trench, it is said that they had never seen one before and weren’t sure how to cross it, therefore the defence worked. While the siege was ongoing, the Prophet prayed for 3 days in one of the mosques at this stop to win the war, which eventually did happen. This is supposed to be the final battle that allowed the Muslims to continue living in Madinah and ensure that Islam remains a world religion to this day.

So, what is there at this location? The first thing you notice as you approach this site is As-Salea mountain. And then you start looking for the seven mosques, of course. Here you have Al-Fateh mosque, which is the mosque that the Prophet prayed in for victory in the Battle of the Trench. Then you have the mosques that were added after the battle; Salman Al-Farisi mosque (Salman the Persian) which was built to honour the companion that suggested the building of the trench, the Abu Bakr As-Saddiq mosque (for the Prophet’s companion), and Ali ibn Abi Talib mosque (another of the Prophet’s companions). Another two mosques were then added during the reign of Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz (86-93 AH) and these are Umar ibn Al-Khattab mosque and Sa’as ibn Mo’az mosque. That brings us to six mosques, with the seventh not listed on the plaque at the site. The seventh must therefore be Al-Khandaq mosque, the mosque you saw in the picture at the start of all of this information. This mosque has no historical significance, but it was built to commemorate the Battle of the Trench as “al-khandaq” can be translated as “the trench”. 

How do we have so much information? Well… the call to prayer was going to happen soon when the bus arrived at this stop so we had time to get out, stretch our legs, find the mosques, and read the plaque. Not bad, huh? So, here are all of our pictures.

But… maybe some of you read this really carefully and we have left you with one question… why did they only build the trench to the north of Madinah? The invading tribes could have simply gone around, no? No. This is our tie-back to our train ride into Madinah. The land to the south, east, and west of Madinah is not hospitable for people or animals to cross. The rocks we saw from the train are volcanic in nature and are therefore very jagged and sharp, with most people and animals unable to cross this terrain. Didn’t we tell you on the train we’d come back to what we had seen?

And, just before getting on the bus again, we will highlight what you may have noticed at the top of As-Salea mountain, the Ottoman structures.

These aren’t related to the battle or the Prophet, and are structures built by the Ottomans. We saw some people walking up there… but we didn’t have any time to explore as we had to get back on the bus! Let’s keep going!

As we leave we are able to non-awkwardly take a picture of something interesting. 

From what we can tell each of these little trailers/buildings is a free healthcare clinic with different specialties. Some of them had lines outside. We assume that it is free for everyone coming to Madinah as there are so many pilgrims, but we are only making an assumption. 

Well, with that it’s time to take one last look at the largest and most modern mosque at this stop.

And then we are off. We drive through Madinah a bit more and while driving on the roads we will give you two interesting facts. One is that off in the distance was the King Fahd Glorious Quran Printing Complex. This has a pretty self-explanatory title where millions of Qurans are printed and you can view the facility and pick up a free Quran available in many languages. The second fact is that again, off in the distance, there is the air conditioning facility for the Prophet’s Mosque. But what? In the distance? Yes, we were confused as well, but the facility is 7 km away from the Prophet’s Mosque and sends air conditioning to the Mosque through an underground tunnel allowing the Mosque to be kept at a cool 21-24 degrees Celsius. A “cool 21-24 degrees”, hehe.

And then we get to the final stop, the Quba Mosque.

As with this entire sightseeing trip, all of these stops are historic, and this is no different. When the Prophet made his pilgrimage from Makkah to Madinah his last stop was at the site that would then become the Quba Mosque. At that time this was a small town on the outskirts of Madinah. The Prophet would then begin the construction of this mosque, likely making it the oldest mosque in the world. Incredible. Many people on the bus tour got off at this stop.

And with that, we’re done. The bus starts approaching the start/end of the tour and we take in the Prophet’s Mosque from a nice vantage point.

Now what? Well, we’re at the Prophet’s Mosque, so we might as well walk around the Mosque again. Might as well enjoy it, right? We start walking around the Mosque as we did yesterday and enter into a little shopping centre. All around the Mosque there are little stores mainly selling souvenirs for Madinah. You can buy prayer mats, Qurans, dates, jewelry, and so much more. In one of these little shopping centres we see our chance to get a classic tourist picture. Notice the difference in the spelling, the problems of translating one alphabet to another.

So we walked around the Prophet’s Mosque again as we thought about what to do next and waited for the evening call to prayer. So, we have to show some pictures again. We will start with Sokaifat Bani Saedah, a historic area just outside of the Prophet’s Mosque.

This is a park commemorating where Abu Bakr, one of the companions of the Prophet, was elected as the first Caliph of the Muslims after the Prophet’s death. This cemented him as the next ruler, and you have read some of his works throughout this post and the one from yesterday.

We then walked around the Mosque to the same side as last night because… we just had to. The Prophet’s Mosque is just so beautiful. So we stayed here for a while, witnessed the evening prayer again, and got some nice pictures. At least we think so.

Then we went back to Al-Ghamama Mosque for a quick picture.

Then what should we do next…? Well, without any plans and having just heard the evening prayer, we decided to witness Madinah by night. And what better way to do that than to jump back on our hop on, hop off bus and take off. Our ticket covers us for 24 hours, so we might as well get our use out of the ticket. So, off we go!

We will do you a favour and not go over all of the information above, of course. Let’s just show you the highlights at night. 

We left straight from the stop outside of Al-Ghamama Mosque, so we wouldn’t waste any time in traffic around the Prophet’s Mosque. So, obviously, the first picture has to be looking into the Prophet’s Mosque.

First stop, the Uhud Battlefield. And you can just see the Sayed Al Shuhada Mosque poking out, a little more clearly than during the day.

Next up? A better picture of Al Qiblatain Mosque (Mosque of the Two Qiblas). We learned our lesson from earlier and moved to the other side of the bus for this picture (and it helped that there were less people on the bus at night).

Then it was off to the Trench Battlefield stop. The only mosque that you can easily make out in this darkness is the Khandaq Mosque.

Then our final stop was, of course, the Quba Mosque.

And with that it was time to go back to the Prophet’s Mosque. On the way we saw the same things as earlier, and we will show you just to compare, even if the pictures aren’t the greatest at night. First, Al Hijaz Railway Station with the large Saudi flag.

And then it was outside of the Prophet’s Mosque. We just took a bunch of pictures here to show just how busy the area around the Mosque can really be late in the evening. 

And finally… the same way we ended the tour earlier today… the Prophet’s Mosque!

Well… as you can tell from the darkness, it’s starting to get late and we need to get back to the hotel. We finally get off the bus and start our walk back towards the hotel. My partner can’t really complain though… he has spent much of today sitting on a bus! Not a bad way to spend the day. We get our shawarma, head by the supermarket for a bit more food and something to drink, and then it’s time to sleep and repeat it all again tomorrow. Good night from Madinah!