We had a big internal debate as to where to go next. We will explain why. As we have previously mentioned, Saudi Arabia has been a country that has closed itself off from foreign tourists for most of our lifetimes. While you could get special permission to enter the country for certain specific things (work being one of the big ones) there were still places that were completely off limits for non-Muslims. This is the case for Islam’s two holiest cities, Makkah and Madinah. Of course, we wouldn’t break those rules. But… why the debate… We’ve seen many reports saying that Madinah is now open for non-Muslims to enter with certain stipulations. So we did “a lot” of research to see if we could figure out how realistic this was. We found a few blogs and YouTube videos of people going to Madinah as non-Muslims and not having any problems. And the official Saudi tourism site that we asked for help with our visa even states that non-Muslims are allowed to visit the outside of the city. However, certain sites just said we should not or could not enter the Prophet’s Mosque. Then we asked some of our Muslim friends what they thought, and they said that we should definitely go and that it should be okay. Plus while we were at Al Tayyebat International City the museum guide asked us if we were going to go to Madinah, we told her that we weren’t sure and she said that we definitely needed to go, and she knew that we were not Muslim. So, someone involved in tourism should know, right? And as the final, final confirmation we checked train tickets. As a test we put that we wanted to take a train from Jeddah to Madinah, no problem, you could go straight to the purchasing page. A good sign… but we wanted one step further. On the same site we typed that we wanted to go to Makkah, here a pop up showed up saying that Makkah is reserved only for Muslims, and we were asked to confirm that we were Muslim. So… as the trains are state companies, we think that this is our final confirmation that we can go to Madinah! So, a long opening paragraph to tell you that we are leaving Jeddah and on our way to Madinah! We are excited!

We take one last look out over Al Balad from our hotel and we’re on our way. It is hot. And, since we will be taking official travel and we are going to the second holiest city in Islam we wanted to be respectful, so my partner and I are both wearing pants in this heat. Ooof. 

We quickly get to the Saptco bus station. We took the picture from the other side of the street to avoid being swarmed by the guys you can see that are waiting to whisk people off to Madinah, Makkah, Riyadh, and other far off cities. They aren’t allowed inside the outer walls of the station, so you won’t be bothered apart from the sporadic yelling asking you to go with them to a city. But, we told them we were going to the airport and they were no longer interested in us. Not worth their time. But you can still see them all right outside of the exit.

The bus arrives about 15 minutes later and we’re ready to go!

The drive is fine again, and we just take one picture of some art along the road and, of course, the construction. SO much construction. As you can tell, we’re obsessed with the construction because there is just SO much of it.

And then we’re back at the airport. A very easy and convenient public transportation solution. Another reason to stay in Al Balad (as we’ve already mentioned).

And then we’re back at the airport. Back at the world’s largest airport aquarium!

We could fly from Jeddah to Madinah, but why would we do that? It’s not even that convenient, and we try to avoid flights whenever possible. So instead we will take the train. You may remember a bit from when we arrived in Jeddah that there is every mode of transportation you’d like directly from the airport. Which do we choose? The high speed train, so we go back upstairs for another look at the aquarium.

Then we walked right by it to the Haramain train station.

We had kept an eye on the train website to know if the trains would fill up or not, and for us they never seemed to be full. On top of that, there are a lot of trains departing for both Makkah and Madinah, so if we didn’t get the next train we knew we’d be able to get the one afterwards. Luckily for us, we got the next train. We bought the ticket towards the right of the above picture. Here we had an interesting/funny (for us) interaction. We bought the ticket from the attendant, and it had the time associated with it, of course. We asked if we should wait in the waiting area or outside. He said that the train should leave at 1 pm “inshallah”. “Inshallah” can be translated as “god willing,” and it is used a lot in this part of the world. We hear it all the time. But this to us was a little bit “funnier” because it caught us off guard, what do you mean “inshallah” the train will leave on time? Haha. But it’s just an aside and a chance for us to highlight just how often people in this region of the world say “inshallah”. We then crossed into the waiting area. They kept us up here until it was almost time to take the train. You can see the trains down below.

We should also quickly mention that we could have gone to the actual Jeddah station, rather than the Jeddah airport, but the trains were more convenient from the airport and with the Saptco airport bus it was cheaper and faster to come back to the airport than go to the Jeddah station. If you’re staying in Al Balad, it will probably be the same for you.

After waiting a few minutes upstairs we were called to go down to the train. No one asked about our religion or anything. We’re not sure if the other train would have, since it was going to Makkah. And we had made the decision that we wouldn’t lie to anyone if they asked us. But, here we are, just checking out the high speed train!

And then it’s time to get on. This already has a completely different feel than the train from Riyadh to Dammam.

It’s not that the train to Dammam was bad, it’s just that this train is on a whole other level. You can see that this is something that Saudi Arabia has heavily invested in recently.

Well, as we get comfortable for our ride, we suppose we can give you some history we found out about. The route from Makkah to Jeddah was completed and operational back in 2018. The route that we are taking was only started in 2021. Why is this so important? Because many, maaaany pilgrims land in Jeddah and then want to immediately head to Makkah or Madinah for Hajj or Umrah. This gives a quick alternative to going by road to either of these two holy cities. It is also why (we think) the trains and stations look so amazing. Of course they’re new, but if this is the image of Saudi Arabia that millions of pilgrims will know and remember from Hajj or Umrah, of course you should make it memorable and pain free. And we’re happy to be able to take a train as well! And, just as the final piece of information, from end to end the route is 450 kilometres with stations in Makkah, Jeddah, Jeddah airport (KAIA), King Abdullah Economic City, and Madinah. For us we will be on the train for about 350 km. Let’s go!

A service we really appreciated while flying through the desert was the map. Similar to the inflight maps you see on planes, they had the speed, date and time, and location on the map for you to see at all times. And a plus that you probably noticed, the Qibbla, to know the direction of Makkah for prayers. And the top speed? 300 km/h. Awesome. We hadn’t gone so fast since we were in Japan after the 2018 World Cup!

And what did we see? Desert, desert, and more desert. 

But!!! That’s not all! This region of Saudi Arabia is also mountainous. You may recall that there were some models of the southwest of the country at Al Tayyebat museum, and we saw some of them here in the distance. 

It was a very pretty landscape. Different than what we saw from Riyadh to Dammam. Beyond “just” the mountains, there was also a lot of greenery that we could see from the train. And we could see where people lived as well. From our untrained eyes… we will suggest that these are people living off of the land from both plantation (maybe those are date palms) and rearing animals.

And finally, we noticed that the desert is also different here. It’s not “just” sand. We see a lot of rock mixed in. It’s black rock… so to us that means volcanic from past experiences. Have we ever heard of volcanoes in Saudi Arabia? No. Did we look this up on the internet and find out that there have been in the past and that the evidence are “volcanic fields”? Yes. So we thought we were correct, and we would be proven correct once in Madinah itself. But you can wait for that story.

And as we approach Madinah… construction!! Haha. We’re loving it.

And then we arrive! A quick, comfortable, awesome trip! And it wasn’t too full. All around great. Welcome to Madinah!

We go inside the station. Just like at the airport (and what we could see at KAEC) the stations are brand new, huge, and very clean.

Well… how do we get to the hotel? No idea. There isn’t any Uber here. Well… there is, but there’s only one driver in any of the different Uber classes. But the app says that a taxi should cost around 50 SAR (~18 dollars) but when we go out to the taxis they tell us that it’s more like 100 SAR. We ask them why, of course. They say it’s suuuuuper far away. We will have to drive a lot, a lot. Of course we had the address and show them that it’s only 12 minutes away, but they refuse to change the price. We go back inside of the station and ask their information centre what we should do. They tell us not to take a taxi because it is expensive and that Uber is not good in Madinah. They recommend another ride hailing app, we believe it was Careem, but luckily for us they have a desk that we can directly book on. We did that and it was 55 SAR, as expected. We go downstairs and jump in our car. Off we go!

Only a few minutes after leaving the train station we pass a sign that says that we are entering the Haram area. What is this? We will explain, of course. 

The Haram can be thought of as both a holy area and a sanctuary. For English speakers it can be hard to distinguish between two separate “harams,” but in Arabic they mean very different things. The one that you may be somewhat familiar with is haraam (حرام) which means forbidden, usually in the context of Islam (alcohol, pork, etc.). The one that we are talking about now is haram (حرم), the sanctuary. In the past this sanctuary could not be entered by non-muslims, which is why the train station and the airport were built outside of the haram. However, in recent times it seems like they have made the haram for muslims only directly around the Al Masjid An Nabawi (The Prophet’s Mosque). We would later learn more intricacies as to what the haram actually entails, with the most interesting part is that no harm can come to any living thing within the haram of Madinah. This means that you cannot hunt animals or birds, cut down trees, or harm another human. This has meant that warring parties can meet with guarantees of safety to settle disputes. The most important haram is of course the one in Makkah, and this is also much, much larger than the one in Madinah, another reason why non-Muslims cannot enter Makkah. But, that’s enough for now, we will try to expand on this when we learn more from our travels around Madinah itself.

For now we keep driving (the explanation probably took longer than our car ride) and see our first holy site, Mount Uhud. 

This is the site of an important battle between the Prophet Muhammad and the polytheist tribes. But that’s all the information we will give for now because we will try to get a better look at Mount Uhud than from a car driving by, and give a more in-depth explanation at that point. As you will soon see, there are many sites of great importance to Islam scattered throughout Madinah. And this is as good a spot as any to dive into some more Arabic. In Arabic “madinah” means “city”. So Al Madinah literally translates to “the city”. But that is only the shortened form of the city name, it’s full name is Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (المدينة المنورة) which literally (but approximately) translates into “the Enlightened City”. Again, you can see the importance of this city.

So, welcome to Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah! And the view from our hotel window!

Can you see that in the distance? Construction! Hehe. But this isn’t just any construction. You’ll have to wait to find out what/where that construction is taking place (if you don’t already know) until we go visit it ourselves. For now it is 5:15 pm and that means that it is still early enough to keep moving. And it’s not like we came to Madinah to sit around in our hotel room. Let’s get going!

We start walking. Everywhere we looked online it told us to take a taxi to the centre of the city, but we don’t want to do that. It should only be about a 30-40 minute walk, pretty much in a straight line. So we get to walking. And of course, we find a huge construction area, and a beautiful backdrop.

Luckily for us the sun is going down so the air is fresher. Hopefully this will be a trend while we’re here because there is no way that my partner will wear shorts while in Madinah. (Flash forward… Madinah is quite cool in the evenings, so we both needed a few more layers than Jeddah). We keep going forward.

And then there’s a big construction project in the way (of course), but, luckily, there’s a big sign telling us where to go.

There’s no way you haven’t put together where we are going. Of course we have to, and we can’t wait to show you! We keep walking. And it’s about here that we really start to feel what’s going on. What Madinah really means. Everyone is walking in the same direction. Everyone. All filing towards one place. It’s a very interesting and incredible feeling.

There are a few people selling little things along the street as everyone walks by, but the vast majority of people are only interested in one thing. And we know what’s going on for once! As we showed you, the sun is going down. That means that the Maghrib prayer is soon. 

And then we see it…

Our first glimpse of Al Masjid An Nabawi, the Prophet’s Mosque. It’s so impressive. So amazing. And we’re not even close yet. We still have about 500 metres to go. Wow. 

And then we’re there, right in front of the Prophet’s Mosque. It is absolutely massive. Huge, huge, huge. And so beautiful. And so, so tall. All that you can really clearly see are the minarets, and that’s because they are almost 105 metres tall each. And in the foreground the main building is hidden from view by the umbrellas. These are all around the main area of the Prophet’s Mosque to protect worshippers from the direct sun or rain. But enough words, here’s the picture from right in front of the mosque.

Now comes the more nuanced, complicated portion. We already described a bit as to our reservations about coming to Madinah, and why/how we ultimately decided to come. But, we thought it best not to enter the actual mosque or the grounds directly around the mosque. Our muslim friends said it should be fine, but we still decided to stay on the outside. So, we walked along the outside of the mosque until the Maghrib prayer actually started. Here we just sat down and observed. 

Incredible. The mosque itself is huge, as you have somewhat seen, but, as with other mosques we have visited, the occupancy is not only counted as the amount of people that can fit inside of the mosque… there is also room for worshippers to conduct their prayers outside of the mosque. This is what we witnessed. When the prayer started we saw people running towards the mosque, but many just stopped outside and joined a line of worshippers to conduct their prayers.

We believe we’ve already explained this, but here we go again because it’s what we are witnessing and we think it is great. As we have described, muslims must pray five times a day with an optional sixth if possible. To do this you need a prayer rug that points towards Makkah (specifically the Qibla, which is obviously shown everywhere around the Prophet’s Mosque so that you orient yourself properly). If you are the first worshipper you orient yourself and start the prayer. Others then join by placing their prayer mat directly next to yours and you both stand foot to foot next to each other to conduct your prayers. This continues until there is no more space at which point a second line starts. The important part here is that everyone is equal; race, class, social standing, none of that matters. And we saw this with our own eyes. People who were very obviously from different social classes were all lined up together and praying together. It was amazing to see. And the call to prayer and prayer themselves were amazing. We had heard about the “energy” that Madinah had and we were intrigued but a bit sceptical. Nope. We felt it during the call to prayer and prayer. We can’t really describe it… but it was our first prayer in Madinah and it was just “different” than any other we had heard in any other city/country in the Middle East so far. And it also helps to see so many people all participating one right next to the other. Simply incredible. But we’re not done yet!

We’re here and we want to keep looking around, so we walk all around the mosque. This way you can really start to tell just how big the mosque and the area around the mosque really are. 

And now we started seeing other smaller mosques. 

This is Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque. It seemed like it wasn’t very accessible as it was behind some construction. From information we were able to find online, Prophet Muhammed is reported to have performed Eid Salah at this mosque.

This is the Abu-Bakr al-Siddique Mosque. This is where the Prophet Muhammed prayer his Eid prayer and where Abu Bakr continued the tradition. For those that don’t know, Abu Bakr was the senior companion to the Prophet Muhammed and he was also his father-in-law through his daughter Aisha. He was the Prophet Muhammed’s closest companion, and in his absence he would lead the prayers. He was also present in almost all of the battles under the Prophet Muhammed after his conversion to Islam in 610 CE. He was also present in the Prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madinah, an extremely important event in Islam (as we have discussed) because it indicates when the Islamic calendar begins. He is known as Al-Siddique (the Truthful/Righteous), a title that was bestowed upon him by the Prophet himself.

This is the Ghamamah Mosque. It is said that the Prophet Muhammed performed an Eid prayer here in 631 CE. It is also said that the Prophet 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.

Well… we hope that that information is all correct, but we’re not done yet! No, no. We would like to visit a museum while here, so, we might as well!

We go to the museum on the right, The Prophet’s Mosque Expansion Exhibition. (The museum/exhibition on the left didn’t have any tickets left for English tours, so we will have to try again later). Well… we thought we would go into the exhibition. We went to the ticket counter and they asked us if we were in a hurry or not and if we could wait. Of course, no problem. The reason? The evening prayer was starting soon and the exhibition would be closed. No problem. We bought our ticket and decided to walk around a bit while we waited.

We walked a bit further and then we got a pretty much unobstructed view of Al Masjid An Nabawi. Wow.

It’s hard to convey just how big it all is. You already know the height of the minarets, but seeing it is just different. And the amount of people in the area is crazy. SO many people.

And that picture allows us to explain something else to our non-Muslim readers. The Green Dome that you can see on the Prophet’s Mosque is very important. This is the place where the Prophet Muhammad is buried along with two of his companions, Abu Bakr and Umar. From our research, there’s a fourth grave that is reserved for Isa (Jesus) because he is to return and will be buried here. Quite interesting. 

We continue a bit further until we reach the corner of the Prophet’s Mosque. 

And just beyond that is the Al-Baqi Cemetery. This is the first and oldest Muslim cemetery in Madinah and it is said that the Prophet Muhammad issued a prayer every time he passed by it. Some of the closest relatives and companions of the Prophet are buried here, including some of his wives and the daughters, as well as some of the people that defended Madinah in the Battle of al-Harra. And going close to this cemetery lead us to our next learning moment. There were signs all around the cemetery in various languages explaining how to visit Muslim cemeteries. Let’s tell you a bit about that.

When a Muslim arrives to the cemetery they should give Salam to its dead. However, there are many things that you should not do when visiting a Muslim cemetery such as: taking the Quran to someone’s grave to either receive blessings or reciting the Quran to the dead to send its rewards to the dead, throwing grains or flowers or sprinkling perfume on the grave, specifying supplications to each inhabitant of the grave, or removing any piece of the grave for any reason (such as a blessing because these are important grave sites). You should also not travel to visit a cemetery as though it were an attraction, you should only visit as an aside of your main reason for travel. All of these are because you are only allowed to pray to Allah in Islam, and this includes at cemeteries. Therefore, even when at a cemetery, you should only pray to Allah and not to any individual buried at the site. This actually leads to a small aside here, but still related. All of these rules are put in place mainly to avoid the worship of other people other than Allah as idolatry is forbidden in Islam. This has actually lead to the destruction of various cemeteries, this one included, to avoid idolatry at various stages in the past.

After that aside we can get back to walking around. We walk back to The Prophet’s Mosque Expansion Exhibition and sit outside just as the evening prayer gets started… Wow.

As before, quite moving. And this time was different as we were able to more clearly see inside the immediate area around the Prophet’s Mosque. It was easier to see everyone taking part. It was great. And there were other people that sat close to me and watched as well, and people took the same pictures we took as they arrived to pray. Very cool.

When the prayer ended we walked around for a few more minutes as the attendants came back to the door, letting us take a picture of the Islamic Court. It was meant to be able to look directly at the Prophet’s Mosque and get inspiration from there. However, we later learned that the court had been moved further from this location.

And then we waited right outside the door, hehe. Can you tell we were excited?

And now it’s time to enter! We’re literally the first people to enter after it opens. We have an audio guide in English to help us navigate through the exhibits. Let’s remind you once again of the name of this museum, The Prophet’s Mosque Expansion Exhibition, so that exactly explains what we are looking at. The museum goes through exactly from the construction of the mosque to the future of the mosque. We will try to give you some highlights, including some non-architectural history of the mosque, but again know that we are not experts and there were a lot of different stages of construction that we will pass over quickly. On top of that, we thought that we weren’t allowed to take pictures until a tour group passed us and they were taking a looooot of pictures, so we took a few near the end. (We/they were seen taking pictures by security and they were okay with it). So here goes!

So, we told you that in English it is referred to as the Prophet’s Mosque, so why? Well, this mosque was the second mosque directly built by the Prophet Muhammad. So how did that happen… 

After the Prophet’s arrival in Madinah from Makkah, his camel Qaswa stopped exactly at this location, so the Prophet wanted to build a mosque here. However, the site was owned by two orphans, Sahl and Suhayl. They wanted to gift the land to the Prophet, but he refused and demanded to pay them as they were orphans and could use the money. Therefore, the Prophet was able to secure the land quickly and begin construction. The construction of the Prophet’s Mosque was finished in the year 623 CE (year 1 AH). However, you can imagine it didn’t look like it does today. To explain it only in words, and keeping all due respect, the building at this time was an open air building which was pretty much “just” four walls. During the Prophet’s lifetime the mosque was used as a shelter for many people, including orphans and widows, as well as a religious school. Interestingly the mosque was not oriented towards Makkah at this point, but towards Jerusalem. This would obviously later change. Many people started calling the mosque home at this point. This mosque only lasted 7 years before the seemingly endless expansions began. 

In the exhibition they have models of each stage of expansion with buttons for you to identify each specific architectural feature of the mosque such as walls, doors/gates, minarets, etc. They also point out exactly where the housing of the Prophet and his wives were located. Quite interesting to see exactly how the mosque progressed.

With Prophet Muhammad’s death in the year 632, he was buried just outside of the mosque. However, as mentioned above, you know that the Prophet’s grave would not remain there forever.

The next big expansion was under Umar who demolished the houses around the mosque (except for the Prophet’s wives homes) to allow for further expansion. But this would not last long. The mosque was demolished in 649 CE, but quickly reconstructed, now pointing towards Makkah.

In the years 706/707 CE work began to expand the mosque further and this is when the first minarets were built on the mosque. The expansion also incorporated the graves of the Prophet, Abu Bakr, and Umar for the first time. This is the area of the mosque that would eventually become the Green Dome area of the mosque. The first signs of this dome would appear during the Ottoman period (Sultan Suleiman 1520-1566) when an iron dome was built. This dome would eventually be painted green in 1837. Inside the walls of the Prophet’s tomb were adorned with gold and jewels, but these features would not make it through Saud bin Abdul-Aziz’s rule as he and his followers believed that this was veneration that was only to be reserved for Allah himself. This interpretation of Islam is what persists until this day in Saudi Arabia.

As a related aside, we would like to spend a few lines explaining the burial site of the Prophet and his followers as this was obviously an important place and highlighted during the exhibition. When the Prophet was buried, he was buried normally. When Abu Bakr was buried, he was buried slightly below and slightly behind the Prophet. Finally when Umar was buried, he was slightly below and slightly behind Abu Bakr. This is meant to show their proximity to the Prophet. When the burial site was walled off, it was originally left with a window for the widows of the Prophet to visit him. However, this would not last and eventually the burial site would be completely walled off. There was then a second “room” built around this original structure to make sure that no one could touch the original walls of the burial site. This is the current state of affairs within the Prophet’s Mosque. 

So how does this all look? You saw it from the outside, but this is the areal view.

The current mosque has a capacity of 1 million worshippers (remember that capacities of mosque include the areas designated outside of the mosque as well). However, this is not enough. The government of Saudi Arabia long ago announced plans to continue expanding the Prophet’s Mosque to a desired capacity of 2 million worshippers. They say this is because of the increasing number of Muslims worldwide and the continuously increasing number of visitors for both Hajj and Umrah.

This is also the perfect time to tie this all together. As you have seen… the Prophet’s Mosque was demolished and rebuilt many, many times. This is not a feature that is only present in the Prophet’s Mosque. Many mosques are demolished, rebuilt, and expanded to show the ruler’s devotion to Allah and to Islam. This is because the Prophet said “whoever builds a mosque to Allah, Allah will build him a house in Paradise”.

At the end of the exhibit you can see some pieces of the mosque that have been removed throughout its history and are on display just before exiting through the gift shop.

And with that, we’re done the exhibit. A looooooot of information. We hope that you enjoyed a deep dive into this historical building and we especially hope that we got the information correct. If we messed anything up, please let us know!

Now it’s time to start back towards our hotel. We can’t stay out all day, and we have to remember that we haven’t even been in Madinah 24 hours. So let’s start walking slowly back and hopefully find some food close to our hotel.

At the end of the Prophet’s Mosque you can see the work that is being done to expand the capacity of the mosque that we explained above. So many cranes!

Then it was time to walk back the way we came, snapping pictures on our way. You can see that there are still many, many people around.

And you know we had to take the opportunity to take another picture of the Prophet’s Mosque at night. This would be our last look of the evening, so we might as well frame it properly.

As we continued walking there were still a lot of people selling a variety of things along the sidewalks. And this area was absolutely packed. So many people trying to shop and get mementos from Madinah. 

And you can also see a small bus in the third picture. Can you guess what this is? As with the Saptco bus station in Jeddah, this area of the street is absolutely packed with people yelling their destinations, mainly of Makkah and Jeddah. So many people getting on and off the busses and vans on their way to other cities. Maybe people come to Madinah for their prayers and then return to other cities or continue their pilgrimage to the holiest site in Islam. Either way, we are not about to get on any form of transportation. We continue walking.

As we approach our hotel we can take a similar picture from earlier today, another look at Mount Uhud. At night the mountain is all lit up, really showing its imposing form over Madinah and showing just how important it is to both the history of Madinah and of Islam. But that was our last look at anything today. We found a supermarket and got some food before heading back to our hotel for some much needed rest. Good night from Madinah al-Munawwarah!