Huge Umbrellas to Be Installed at Makkah Grand Mosque
It would reduce the difficulties of worshippers who pray in the mosque’s courtyards under the scorching sun.
More than 300 umbrellas will be installed in the courtyards around the Grand Mosque including the newly expanded areas, Arab News reported.
The umbrellas would cover about 275,000 square meters of open space surrounding the mosque.
The Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah has nearly 250 umbrellas for the comfort of the pilgrims. Like blooming flowers, the umbrellas are programmed to fold and unfold in minutely delayed sequence to avoid collision between their moving parts. Their near-silent operation is automatically aligned with changes in the daily temperature. They open each morning, creating a translucent ceiling, and retract each evening in less than three minutes.
In summer, the open umbrellas provide daytime shade and reflect away much of the sun’s radiant energy. When closed at night, they allow residual heat absorbed by the stone floors and walls to escape back into the atmosphere. The process is reversed in winter. When temperatures are relatively low, umbrellas are closed during the day to allow the winter sun to warm the site, and opened at night to retain heat near ground level.
The mosque itself is air-conditioned. Lowering temperatures in the surrounding courtyards reduces the demand for cooling inside. Shading the courtyards accomplishes this, plus providing more comfortable areas for pilgrims and worshippers.
