In October 2008, to complement Edge of Arabia’s debut show in London, the Makkah & Madinah Room was created as a means of presenting the history of the spiritual cities of Makkah and Madinah plus the Islamic pilgrimage of the Hajj.
Three short presentations were shown on a continuous loop, throughout the day. We were also able to collate very old prints and photographs including the previously unseen work of Safouh Naamani, one of the early pioneers of colour photography in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Safouh’s beautiful documentary, ‘the Pilgrimage to Makkah’ was being shown at 12:15 daily in the Makkah Room. This documentary which began in the 1950s was completed in the early 1960’s and shows a time when the Hajj pilgrims still traveled by foot, camels and boat.
“I have visited the Makkah room and it has been really great to find young people sitting there quietly watching the films.” Peter Sanders
