I had a bit of a nap which wasn’t the best thing after breakfast due to the effect on my sugar levels. I decided late morning/early afternoon just before afternoon prayers to go outside and walk towards the grand mosque (Masjid Al-Haram). It was literally a straight walk down to the Abdul-Aziz Gate.
The way that the grand mosque is organised is that there are multiple gates or entry points into the Ka’bah area. Abdul-Aziz was one of them and it was the closest to me. It was just at the bottom of Ajyad Street. Google Maps will tell you that it’s a 12 minute walk from Emaar Elite Hotel to the Grand Mosque but in reality as the roads, traffic and surfaces are not smooth and not to mention how busy it actually is with people, it normally takes about half an hour in reality. This was the case for any directions in Makkah I would come to realise – that the real time to get anywhere by walking in Makkah is typically 3 times longer than the estimated time presented on Google Maps.
Also one other thing to be really careful about is that a lot of the directions used in Google Maps are not walkable for pedestrians. There are no side walks or crossings for that matter so unless you walk with the cars, you won’t be able to follow the directions, which obviously is not practical or safe.
A lot of the time, I walked wherever others walked on the side of the roads whilst the cars were just besides you. As there was so much traffic it was impossible for a car to go past 4 / 5 mph without needing to stop-start. Also the whole time I was there I don’t remember ever pressing or seeing a crossing at traffic lights. You know the ones with the green man telling you it’s safe to walk.
Makkah is also a mountainous city. The Haram area has been widely developed and is walkable but the outer parts of Makkah are mountainous with granite hills. So depending on which hotel you book and what side of Al-Haram it is, you might be walking downhill, en-route to the grand mosque and then uphill on the way back. Something to keep in mind if you book a hotel outside the clock towers complex in the Haram area.
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