Went to Mecca Without Breaking the Rules…

What's up guys from beautiful Saudi Arabia. There is one place in this country that I've always wanted to visit and I'm sure you've heard of it before. It's called Mecca. But the only issue is in order to go to Mecca you have to be Muslim and there's no way around it. They have checkpoints set up around the city where they'll search your ID and they'll make sure that you are actually a Muslim and obviously I'm Jewish and I'm not able to physically go to Mecca. So what I've done is I've gotten in touch with a local guy named Abdullah who's going to go there. He's actually on his way right now and he's going to be FaceTiming me and doing a live virtual tour of Mecca so I can see it and I can document it and I can share it with you guys but I don't want to be disrespectful and break the rules by going there. But while I wait for his call I want to show you this unbelievable place that I'm currently at called Al-Ula. Al-Ula is one of the greatest archaeological sites that we have on this planet. It was once the former capital of an ancient empire and now it remains home to the mind-blowing city of Hegra. There you can find 111 monumental tombs with intricate carvings that are more impressive than Petra in Jordan and they are scattered around the world's largest desert oasis with more than 3 million palm trees. It was such a magical experience to wander around the old city of Al-Ula basically all by ourselves and when you consider that they are trying to turn this into the largest tour site in the country I was amazed. Lots of stairs. Yes almost there. Here we are. Wow look at this. Unbelievable. Just opens up to a huge valley of rocks. Well Al-Ula is welcoming you with open arms. Oh my god look at this. Unreal. We have made it to the top of a beautiful old mud brick village and you can see it's just down here in the valley. You have the oasis in the distance. You have the huge mountains here. It kind of reminds me of Sedona in Arizona. Can you guess how many houses can you see there? Maybe 300? 900 houses. Yes and there are 400 shops other than the house. Unbelievable. That was awesome. It was. The view from up there is just amazing. But this is the real adventure here going through the old village. It's like you just get lost you know. We don't know which way to turn. Oh look that's different. Whoa look in the walls there. What is that? Wow those are inscriptions. This is really cool. Then you have these like little x crosses down here. I wonder what they were trying to say. Like what is this? What is the meaning of this? I'm here with Sarah and we are witnessing something really special. We're in the beautiful mountains of Al-Ula in western Saudi Arabia and there's beautiful ancient inscriptions. Rock art. It's beautiful. It's gorgeous. Look at them. They're perfectly lined up just like a notebook. It's so fascinating that literally this entire place is covered in ancient inscriptions. Yes that's just a small like part of the entire mountain. It's full of inscriptions. I wish I had more time to show you everything but I've showed you two civilizations and you have one more to go and it's our favorite. Absolutely. Really? Yes. We are now rolling up to the iconic elephant rock. The place that I've seen in so many pictures on Instagram and on the internet and we're just now catching the sunset so it's just a perfect time of day to see. You can't ignore what's going on behind me. They turned this whole place into like an attraction. There's cafes, there's cool music playing, there's places to hang out. It's really just like a family friendly environment. Sunset in Saudi Arabia. I think that's time to ride a camel. Sarah let's ride a camel. Oh Jesus. Here in my 197th and final country Saudi Arabia and I am riding a camel next to elephant rock. I've ridden about 10 camels in my life in 10 different countries. It's always a pretty wild experience but it's just something you got to do. You know like when else do you get the chance to ride a camel in your life? Here in Saudi Arabia I think it's a pretty good idea. I'm gonna have to cut our Al Ula adventure short because my friend Abdullah is ready to chat. I'm about to virtually visit the holiest site in Islam, about 700 kilometers south of here and I am taking you guys with me. This is something I've been waiting to do for years and it's finally happening. What's up man? You're in Mecca right now. Yeah. See? You can't see it behind me. That is the Kaaba. Wow. Dude I've only seen that in pictures on Google. That's so cool. This is like the holy place where everyone prays on that direction. We believe Abraham has built that and if you can see there's a golden, there's something there. Is that like the main place? The main place is here. So you have like 21 gates. You can pick any gate and just access. Now they are performing Umrah, circling around the Kaaba for seven times and then when they finish they go to something called Al Masa. I cannot go down, at least during COVID. It's so cool man. I've always wanted to like go to Mecca. I'm so fascinated by Mecca and it's so cool that like we're talking right now. Yeah. It's pretty empty by the way. It's uncrowded because of COVID. Just finished the afternoon prayer in Mecca. Yeah. This is the Kaaba and I'm in the first floor. Now we're about to exit the Mecca area. People are walking around in a circle around it. Yes. Seven times and when we finish we go to something called Al Masa. We do also seven times, about 2.7 kilometers of walking around. During Abraham who built the Kaaba back then, his wife was on Al Masa and which is the second place we go and she was running, trying to find water. Now imagine all these buildings, the big towers around the Kaaba was like mountains. It was a valley. So a valley in the middle of nowhere, no water, nothing. And then suddenly on Al Masa area, which is after they circled the Kaaba, the water appears. So we are performing this after circling the Kaaba. So during the main pilgrimage, everybody goes to that exact spot in Mecca. Yeah. Imagine, imagine two to three million. They do this during Hajj. Now in Ramadan, it's like you can have about one million praying here in Mecca. That's so cool. Yeah, that's pretty empty by the way now. I mean, this is one of the rarest moments. Abdullah, when you go to Mecca, do you really feel a presence? Like how does it feel to be there? I really wish I could come. That's amazing because you know, when you walk, you'll see different nationalities. You see, you feel, you see, you listen to different languages. So you'll see that people are from Somalia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, everywhere. And we just pray next to each other. And it's a very humbling experience. Wow. What is that? This is Zamzam water, which was a running well here in Mecca, which we drink from it. Oh, it's like a holy water. That's really cool, man. Everywhere there is a Quran so people can read. Imagine this floor, for example, it's a marble, special kind of marble, where it can absorb the heat. And you have copper, gold. I mean, it's like, they have open budgets for Mecca, you know, just to serve, maybe this will serve the visitors here in Mecca. Yeah, I've been told that the hospitality there is like, unbelievable because people are actually making a pilgrimage. They're walking to Mecca. So people host them and they give them food. Right? Yeah, that's true. That's true, yeah. This one is Al-Mas'a, I told you, they serve them in Kaaba. They walk from the end, you see these green signs, they run, they jog, and then they continue until here. And then they go to the other side. And same thing again, seven times. I'm not performing Umrah, but this guy is doing Umrah. I see him. I see him jogging. Whoa. What else is special about Mecca that you can only see there? Two main things is circling around Kaaba and doing this Al-Mas'a, and then you pray before you enter, you're performing the Umrah, and you cut the pieces of your hair, which is a sign that you have finished your performing of Umrah. You actually cut your hair off? Just small pieces of hair. It's a sign that the holiness of doing this performance has ended, and now you can cut your hair, which Prophet Muhammad used to do this. How many times have you been to Mecca? Many times, I cannot count, but whoever lives outside, to them, this is something, a big deal. Is Mecca also like a normal city? Like there's restaurants, or is it only holy places, mosques? I mean, if we go outside, you'll find many small shops, restaurants, shawarma shops, hotels, massive hotels. It's a normal city, but we are like in the heart of Mecca. This is the Grand Mosque, so I have to exit one of more than 40 gates. If you're planning to exit, I would like to just see the street for one second as you go out. Are you able to do that? Yeah, so I'm exiting actually. Great. But you know, I have a long way to exit. It's really cool, man. Such a holy city, and as someone who's not Muslim, I'm just fascinated to know about it. A question for you. When you drove there, did you go through a checkpoint? There's a checkpoint to do some sort of administration of the traffic. So they tell you where to park, how to get the bus to come here, if you want to take a taxi. Do they check if you're Muslim? There's a sign on the road where it says non-Muslims. On this way, Muslims, you can go straight to Mecca. So there's a checkpoint for that, but this is not in Mecca, this is on the way to Mecca. People come here from everywhere, and they usually stay two, three days, four, five days, then they go to Medina. And every time I come here to Mecca, it's like I have traveled, if you think about it. I want to go to Medina, man. Do you think I can go to Medina? Yeah, you can, you can. I mean, not inside the mosque. So I just want to show you. Wow. So there's another floor downstairs. Cool. Are you going to be available in a couple days to take me around Medina? That's fine. Just let me know when, and we can do this. I didn't know that I could go to Medina, so I think it would be really cool to check it out. You're outside now. Cool. Yeah, I'm outside one of the many gates. This is huge. By the way, they are doing expansions here. Building a lot. They want to have more visitors, so they can at least have one million Muslims praised in one place at the same time. So cool, man. This has been a really fascinating tour. I've always wanted to see Mecca, and I've never seen it until right now as I'm here. I'm in Al-Ula, man. Can you see around me? Look at these palm trees. Look at that. That's an oasis. So cool, bro. So yeah, dude, I appreciate the tour. You're welcome. Hey, shukran, habibi. I'll see you soon. Okay, shukran. Later, man. See you soon. Bye-bye. Well, that was really special for me, guys, and I hope you enjoyed this video. I mean, it's, I don't know, Mecca is something that I've always wanted to visit. It's like, the fact that I'm not able to go there, and the fact that it's the birthplace of Islam, a religion that I really love and respect and admire, I just thought that this would be a really cool way to be able to see Mecca and be able to share it with you guys. So thank you so much for watching this video. I really appreciate it. I hope you've been enjoying the content around Saudi Arabia, my 197th and final country. It's such a special place, full of life and hospitality and stories, and so I'm just really happy here. I'm really in my element, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for watching this video. Hit me up on Instagram to follow my trip live, at Drew Binsky, and I will catch you guys later. Peace. I'm Drew Binsky, and thanks for watching. Make sure to subscribe to this channel down there, if you want to see more adventures from every country, and below you can find my second channel, where I tell stories about the most inspiring people in the world. Also, I'm giving away for free all my best travel tips and secrets for finding cheap flights on that middle link. Until next time, stay safe, be spontaneous, and just go.