Old Buildings

At present, the area around the ring of the Grand Mosque is like a forest of high-rise hotels and residential buildings on top of hills, most constructed decades ago.

Traffic gridlocks and the plan envisages 40 side roads all leading to the Mosque, in addition to pedestrian tunnels under main streets to facilitate the movement of worshippers.

There are no gardens around the Mosque at present, but more than 30,000 square metres of parks are to spring up, planted with thousands of trees.

One of the major projects is the six-billion-riyal ($1.6 billion) Jabl Umar mountain, overlooking the Mosque. Several hundred old buildings have been demolished which were built by the Ottomans.

Some 120 residential towers, each 20 storeys high, with a total capacity for 100,000 people are planned for the 160,000-square-metre mountain, named after the second Caliph in Islam, Umar bin al-Khattab.

Major construction companies

Under another scheme a multi-tower residential and shopping centre will rise from the site of the old Ajyad Hospital, located on the very edge of the mosque. A modern hospital will also be built as part of the centre.

Three major Saudi construction companies, Makka Construction Co, Bin Ladin Group and Saudi Oger have formed a consortium for the latter project.