Photos: Saudi Arabia releases first-ever photos of holy Kaaba stone

A picture released by the Saudi General Presidency for the affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque shows a specially-processed image of the Prophet Ibrahim's shrine stone at the Grand Mosque in the Saudi holy city of Mecca. The photos offer a look at the ancient Islamic site that has never been seen before, using the stacked panoramic focus technology, combining images of different clarity to produce one highly accurate 49,000-megapixel image.

The 49,000-megapixel images were taken over seven hours and required a week to edit. It is the first time the authority has been able to show the Black Stone in such detail.

According to Islamic belief, the shrine stone and black stone were brought down from heaven to earth and handed over to Ibrahim and his son Ismael to build the Kaaba.

The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosque took 1,050 photographs of the Black Stone and the shrine of Ibrahim using Fox Stack Panorama technology, which combines images with varying degrees of clarity to produce a single accurate high-resolution picture of the Black Stone, known as Hajar Aswad in Arabic.

The authority was interested in using the latest imaging techniques because of the Black Stone’s importance to Muslims.

The reddish-black, oval-shaped stone is 30 cm in diameter and is located in the southeast corner of the Kaaba.

Muslim worshippers perform the evening Taraweeh prayers of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan while seated around the Kaaba, the most sacred shrine in the Grand Mosque complex in the Saudi city of Mecca.

The stone is positioned 1.5 meters above the ground and placed inside a frame made of pure silver for protection. It is the starting and finishing point of the circumambulation. Above, an aerial view of Muslim worshippers around the Kaaba (unseen), the holiest shrine in the Grand Mosque complex in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca.