Saudi officials have replaced the Kiswa (the cloth cover) of the Kaaba to commemorate the Day of Arafat and the start of Eid al-Adha, according to Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Monday.

The process of changing the Kiswa takes place every year on the second day of Hajj, under the supervision of Sheikh Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz Al-Sudais, President of the Holy Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque.
The Kiswa is made from about 670 kilograms of raw silk dyed black, 120 kilograms of gold thread, and 100 kilograms of silver thread. Quranic verses are sewn onto the black cloth with gold-plated threads.

It covers the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the center of Mecca’s al-Masjid al-Haram, that Muslims believe was built by Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail (the Grand Mosque). , Muslims face the qibla, or direction, of the Kaaba, which is known as the “house of God.”
Every year, the gatekeepers of the Kaaba carry out the task of changing the black cloth draped over the holy structure.This year, 160 artisans and technicians will raise the fabric and send it to Mecca’s King Abdulaziz Complex for Kiswa Manufacturing, where the old cloth’s gold and silver threads will be removed, according to SPA.

The old Kiswa is then placed in a government warehouse where it undergoes a process to prevent any chemical reactions or bacteria from infiltrating and damaging the fabric.

Pieces of the cloth are then distributed to museums or are gifted.

According to ninth-century historian Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Azraqi, the Kiswa was first used when Yemeni King Tubba “instructed the leaders of (the) Jurhum tribe to maintain its purgation and make a door and a key for it” in the fourth century. It has since become the Kaaba’s most recognized feature.