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Mecca, Saudi Arabia

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Location

The Resume

    (circa 2000 BC- )
    Also spelled Makkah
    Population: 1,294,000 (2006 census)
    Birth place of Muhammad
    Location of the holiest site in Islam, the kaaba, which was allegedly built by Abraham and his son Ishmael
    Muslims face towards it during prayers
    Every able bodied Muslim who can afford to do so is required to make a pilgrimage (hajj) here at least once in their life

Why Mecca, Saudi Arabia might be annoying:

    Non-Muslims are banned on pain of death.
    Some Muslims have heated disputes over whether you should face Mecca based on a straight line drawn on a flat map or based on the shortest arc on a globe.
    Its economy is based almost entirely on money spent by visitors.
    It gets severely overcrowded during the hajj season.
    The overcrowding caused several disasters in which pilgrims were trampled to death, the worst being a stampede in a tunnel that killed 1,462 (July 2, 1990).
    Tom Tancredo recommended that we 'take out' Mecca if Islamic terrorists attacked an American city with nuclear weapons.

Why Mecca, Saudi Arabia might not be annoying:

    It is a holy site for over a billion people.
    It inspired the use of mecca in English to mean a place or object to which people are attracted.
    It attracts over 4 million pilgrims a year.
    Saudi officials have tried to relieve the crowding by building additional accessways and emergency exits and by trying to limit the number of repeat hajj visits.
    In response to health concerns, the Saudi government requires pilgrims to be vaccinated for meningitis.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 164 Votes: 53.05% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 45 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 18 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 67 Votes: 47.76% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 66 Votes: 53.03% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 166 Votes: 59.04% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 81 Votes: 56.79% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 24 Votes: 54.17% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 313 Votes: 60.06% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 123 Votes: 50.41% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 253 Votes: 52.17% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 127 Votes: 75.59% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 443 Votes: 74.27% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 384 Votes: 67.45% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 262 Votes: 62.98% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 333 Votes: 81.68% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 107 Votes: 65.42% Annoying