'Planes That Fly Over Mecca Fall Due to Gravity'; Fact or Myth?

Every year, with the pilgrimage season approaching to the Sacred House of God, activists re-publish information about the reason for the prohibition of flying over Mecca Al-Mukarramah, and they talk about the presence of magnetic attraction over the Kaaba, claiming that Mecca is the geographical center of the world.

Some activists put forward, on social media, imaginary scenarios, indicating the possibility of planes falling if they hovered over the Kaaba due to strong gravity or a beam emanating from the Kaaba.

Others present the issue from a scientific angle, referring to studies by professors in the scientific miracles of the Holy Qur’an, with inferences from verses from the Holy Qur’an that support his view that the Kaaba is the geographical center of the Earth.

However, others presented scientific studies and press reports that deny this opinion and downplay the importance of the aforementioned studies, but nonetheless confirm that the location of Mecca and the Kaaba is a real miracle.

From its part, the Saudi authorities and Saudi aviation experts confirmed that for reasons related to the sanctity of the place, the unwillingness to disturb pilgrims and worshipers, and the nature of Mecca surrounded by mountains; Aircraft are prohibited from passing over it.

The France-Press Agency took part in this controversy in a report published on July 6, 2021, as the agency's "fact-finding" service said that the promotion of Mecca as the center of the Earth is not a scientific fact.

The agency pointed to what was published by the Saudi Anti-Rumors Authority, through a video clip, in which a Saudi pilot and navigation official revealed that the reason for the ban on flying over Mecca is respect for the holy places and the desire not to disturb pilgrims.

The clip, which ended some of the controversy, confirmed that this ban contains some exceptions for helicopters that sometimes fly in the sky of the city.

It pointed to the flight of the rescue helicopters in 2006, after the collapse of a building in which pilgrims lived, killing 76 people and wounding about 60 others.

 

Gravity Center

Religious and scientific conferences held over the past years answered the question: "Is Mecca really the center of the world?" They denied what was being raised about magnetic attraction that would bring down planes if they hovered over the Kaaba.

It monitored what was stated in the Holy Qur’an and the honorable prophetic hadiths about the reality of scientific miracles and differentiated between them and the rumors of activists exploited by Western writings.

Some of those studies and research proved that the location of Mecca was indeed a miracle, while others focused on proving that it was the most suitable city to be a center for world time and not the British city of Greenwich, with the world in its midst.

The Egyptian topographical astronomer, professor of surveying at Cairo University, Dr. Hussein Kamal El-Din, was the first to publish a paper in 1975, in which he referred to the mediation of Mecca on land.

He said: In Mecca Al-Mukarramah the magnetic north line coincides with the true (geographical) north line, and this is not available in any other place than Mecca Al-Mukarramah.

 

Centrality of Mecca

A study published by the scientific researcher at the International Astronomy Center, "Izz al-Din Kazaber", clarified the truth of what Dr. Hussein Kamal said about the centrality of Mecca to land.

He stressed that Kamal's research was about preparing a map that helps determine the direction of the qiblah from anywhere in the world.

He pointed out that Dr. Kamal was seeking to achieve accurate directions towards a specific location, which is Mecca Al-Mukarramah, and that he chose the type of projection that achieves this, so his map was correct for the purpose of specifying the direction of Mecca to any place in the world that can be set on the paper map.

He believes that from here some took the hadith of Kamal, added to it and spoke of information that was not true.

Dr. Hussain Kamal Al-Din mentioned in his study “Projecting the Earth in relation to Mecca Al-Mukarramah and Determining the Direction of the Qibla”, that he “observed” the centering of Mecca Al-Mukarramah in the heart of a circle that passes through the edges of all the continents.

That is, the land on the surface of the globe is distributed around Mecca in an orderly fashion, and that this holy city is therefore considered the center of the land.

This result shows the relative meanness of Mecca to the world, and it is not likely to take the centrality of Mecca Al-Mukarramah as a “literal centrality” as the center of a circle to its circular circumference, but rather as a “medium centrality”.

Its Miraculous Location

Scientifically, this means that the Kaaba is not located in the center of the Earth’s surface or in an average location on the land, but its location is nevertheless a miracle; It is compatible with the so-called "golden ratio".

It is a special number obtained by dividing a line into two parts, so that the product of dividing the length of the large part by the small part is equal to the product of dividing the length of the whole line by the length of the large part.

On February 17, 2017, Sky News Arabia conducted an experiment using the Google Earth application that showed the measurement of the distance between the Kaaba and the South Pole, which is 12,361.17 kilometers.

Then the distance between the Kaaba and the North Pole was measured, reaching 7639.50 km, and when dividing the first number by the second, the result is 1.618, which is exactly the golden ratio.

As for the true geographical center of the Earth, or the so-called engineering center of all the land on the Earth's surface, according to scientific geographical measurements, it is the Turkish city of "Churum" located in the middle of the Anatolian Plateau, according to scientific studies and Google maps.

 

Reason for Banning Planes

The explanation is that the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque takes a number of precautions to protect the Kaaba and not disturb its Muslim pilgrims.

Therefore, flights over the Kaaba were prohibited in reverence and respect for it. Therefore, there are no airspace lines over the Kaaba, and there is no airport inside Mecca Al-Mukarramah from the ground up.

The Saudi pilot, Hassan Al-Ghamdi, explains this in an explanatory video, stressing that Mecca is a "mountainous area", and flying over it causes inconvenience and confusion for those performing the rituals of Umrah or Hajj.

Another reason for preventing the passage of planes is that the Great Mosque of Mecca is reserved for Muslims only, and planes entering the airspace may carry people of other faiths.

Al-Ghamdi refuted the reasons that say that there is a magnetic field over Mecca Al-Mukarramah that prevents aircraft from flying, or that there are air gaps that create an imbalance in the layers of the atmosphere that prevents the passage of aircraft.