Editing Mecca (section)

====Saudi conquest====

Following the [[Battle of Mecca (1924)|1924 Battle of Mecca]], the Sharif of Mecca was overthrown by the Saud family, and Mecca was incorporated into Saudi Arabia.<ref name="encarta">[https://web.archive.org/web/20091028055612/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577367/Mecca.html "Mecca"] at [[Encarta]]. (Archived) 1 November 2009.</ref> Under Saudi rule, much of the historic city has been demolished as a result of the Saudi government fearing these sites might become sites of association in worship besides Allah (''[[Shirk (Islam)|shirk]]''). The city has been expanded to include several towns previously considered to be separate from the holy city and now is just a few kilometers outside the main sites of the Hajj, Mina, Muzdalifah, and Arafat. Mecca is not served by any airport, due to concerns about the city's safety. It is instead served by the [[King Abdulaziz International Airport]] in [[Jeddah]] (approx. 70&nbsp;km away) internationally and the [[Ta'if Regional Airport]] (approx. 120&nbsp;km away) for domestic flights.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

The city today is at the junction of the two most important highways in all of the Saudi Arabian highway system, Highway 40, which connects the city to Jeddah in the west and the capital, [[Riyadh]] and [[Dammam]] in the east and Highway 15, which connects it to [[Medina]], [[Tabuk, Saudi Arabia|Tabuk]] and onward to [[Jordan]] in the north and [[Abha]] and [[Jizan]] in the south. The Ottomans had planned to extend their railway network to the holy city, but were forced to abandon this plan due to their entry into the [[First World War]]. This plan was later carried out by the Saudi government, which connected the two holy cities of Medina and Mecca with the modern [[Haramain high-speed railway]] system which runs at 300&nbsp;km/h (190&nbsp;mph) and connects the two cities via Jeddah, King Abdulaziz International Airport and [[King Abdullah Economic City]] near Rabigh within two hours.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

The [[Haram (site)|haram area]] of Mecca, in which the entry of non-Muslims is forbidden, is much larger than that of Medina.