MAKKAH: For centuries, the Two Holy Mosques at Makkah and Madinah have welcomed pilgrims from across the globe, and to the pleasant surprise of visitors, the sparkling white marble floor that surrounds the Kaaba in Makkah city remains cool beneath their feet, even during the hottest summer days.
Some, nonetheless, claim that hidden cold-water pipes under the floor are a factor for its coolness but the real reason lies in the mosque’s unique choice of building material, according to Arab News. Marble from eastern Greek Thassos island near Kavala in the Aegean Sea, has one of the rarest characteristics ever found in stone.
“Thassos marble “
Due to its high reflection of light and pure white appearance, Thassos marble, also called “snow white” marble, has one of the lowest heat absorbances of any marble.
The stone has been mined from the island since ancient times and is still being used all over Greece today. It has formed the floors, walls and statues of some of history’s big sites, including the ancient Macedonian tomb at Amphipolis, the largest-ever discovered in Greece and Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
The stone’s unique characteristics see its frequent use in interior decoration and luxury villas though it does not come cheap. Individual tiles may range between $250-$400 per square metre, according to Indian marble supplier, RMS Marble. Marble extracted at a mine in Thassos in Greece, is one of its most impressive features of the floor of the Makkah’s Grand Mosque.
For decades, the Kingdom has imported the unique dolomitic marble for exclusive use at the Two Holy Mosques to avoid unsafe surface temperatures and provide relief as mosque visitors are required to enter barefoot.
Undersecretary-general for technical, operational, and maintenance affairs at the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques, Eng. Fares Al-Saedi, told Arab News that Thassos marble is characterized by its extreme coldness even in intense heat that may peak up to 50-55 C in the summer months. Pilgrims use umbrellas to protect themselves from the extreme heat during summer, but on the marble floor, they need no protection.
The Kingdom’s leadership is importing the self-cooling stone for wide yards and open spaces where millions of pilgrims pass annually. According to a study published in the international journal Construction and Building Materials in 2021, the thermophysical features of the Thassos marble both reflect and dissipate solar insolation heat.
This type of marble is expensive and rare as a single piece is five centimeters thick, 60 centimeters wide and 120 centimeters long. It absorbs moisture and cold at night through its delicate pores to preserve them during day time. That is why the surfaces of the Grand Mosque remain moderately cool all year long.
