200 mosques in Saudi face the wrong direction

Riyadh: Around 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Makkah, point the wrong way for prayers, a Saudi Arabian newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the Arab News paper, the mosques were reportedly not built exactly based on the qibla, the official alignment with the holy Ka'aba shrine at the centre of the holy city's Al Haram mosque.

People looking down from new skyscrapers in Makkah found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Ka'aba, and some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.