This book covers the story of the Ka"bah, Mecca, the Pilgrimage, and Medina from the earliest traditions through the fall of the Ottoman Empire and up to the short-lived Hashemite Kingdom that followed it in the Hejaz and made way for the establishment of the writ of the Saud over the two Holy Cities in 1925. A historical portrait and a social commentary on the lives of important individuals and the times, accounts of historians and travelers, many of them eyewitnesses, breathe life into the depictions of the scenarios portrayed. Also included is a spectacular photo essay by the granddaughter of the late King Faisal, Princess Reem Faisal.