MECCA IN DANGER

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11935, 16 September 1924, Page 7

MECCA IN DANGER

SACRED CITY SURROUNDED! TRIBESMEN FROM THE NORTH ASPIRE TO CONTROL. EGYPT ALARMED. Rv Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright A-ustralian ftivd N.Z. Cable Association.,, (Received September 15, 7.35 p.m.) CAIRO, September 15. The Wahabis have reached the environs of Mecca, and the fall of the city is imminent. The Egyptian Government has ordered the transfer of its moneys to Jeddah. The Wahabis are the people of Nejd, a powerful principality an Central Arabia. Nejd was once the centre of the Wahabi Empire, which was founded about 1745, and shattered by Mehemet Ali of Egy.pt in 1812. The people, who live in oases, are orthodox Moslems. THE ETERNAL PILGRIMAGE Meooa, the famous birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed, has a fixed population of about 70,000, and depends for its existenoe mainly en the scores of thousands of pilgrims who visit it every year. Jeddah, the fort of Mecoa, is 65 miles away, on the Red Sea. The great Mosque of Meooa consists of a quadrangle, capable of holding 35,000 persons. It is surrounded by arcades or cloisters, with pillars of marble and granite, and entered by nineteen gates, surmounted by seven ■minarets. THE SACRED WELL. In the centre of Mecca is the Iv aab a, the temple of Mecca ages before the time of Mohammed, who is paid to have invented' the legend that the Kaalba was invented 'by Abraham. Into the south-east oomer is built the celebrated Black Stone, which is kissed by the pilgrims, and close by is the well of Zemaem. Its tepid water may once have been mineral, but the largest item in its present analysis consists of sewage matter. In 1893 European scientists traced the destructive visitations of cholera to the sacred well, and tire Powers alarmed the Suiblime Porte by demanding that it should be cleaned, or shut up.