Mount Arafat
— — the hill the pilgrimage cannot do without.
Not only on a wall.
“A granite hill about seventy metres high, rising from the open plain of Arafat. For one afternoon each year, the ninth of Dhu al-Hijjah, more than two million pilgrims gather on this plain for the standing of Wuquf, the heart of the Hajj. The Prophet Muhammad delivered his Farewell Sermon here. The rest of the year the plain is quiet, the hill bare.
Mount Arafat, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Mount Arafat, known in Arabic as Jabal ar-Rahmah, the Mount of Mercy, is a granite hill rising about 70 metres above the plain of Arafat, roughly 20 km southeast of Mecca in Saudi Arabia's Makkah Province. The plain itself is a wide flat basin ringed by low desert hills, large enough to hold the entire Hajj congregation on a single afternoon. A white pillar marks the place near the summit traditionally associated with the Prophet Muhammad's Farewell Sermon. The site sits within the sacred precinct's outer boundary and is reached by road from Mecca, Mina, and Muzdalifah.
The hill defines a single day in the Islamic calendar. On the ninth of Dhu al-Hijjah, the second day of Hajj, pilgrims travel from Mina to the plain of Arafat for Wuquf, the standing, between noon and sunset. It is the rite without which the pilgrimage is not valid. In recent years the gathering has numbered around two million people; some years more. The Prophet Muhammad delivered his Farewell Sermon from near this hill in 632 CE, an address Muslims regard as the moral summary of his teaching. The Day of Arafah is observed by fasting Muslims worldwide.
Access to Mecca and the plain of Arafat is restricted to Muslims; non-Muslims are not permitted to enter the sacred precinct or the Hajj sites. During Hajj season, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah administers a quota system through which national pilgrimage authorities distribute visas; outside Hajj the plain can be visited as part of an Umrah journey. Saudi authorities have expanded shaded structures and water provision across the plain to handle the heat; afternoon temperatures often exceed 40°C. The Mashair Metro carries pilgrims between Mecca, Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Mina during the rites.