Re: Defacing Mecca
I remember that fort, it used to be visible from outside the mosque, my dad used to show me that when I was a kid. There was a pretty big controversy over that because Turkey didn’t want the fort demolished but the Saudis got their way in the end. However I also think that as the number of pilgrims increase they need to utilise what little space they have to accomodate more people. Everyone wants to stay close to haram so skyscrapers unfortunately are the answer, you can’t build these hotels any further away because it makes it harder for people to make their for way for prayer 5 times a day.
The Vatican and Taj Mahal really do not compare with the masjid-al-haram, they don’t have to deal with millions of Muslim pilgrims every year and Makkah isn’t exactly a tourist spot, the Saudis don’t need to ‘show off’ to the pilgrims, otherwise they’d have built something like the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (where land is not even at a premium).
I think you have to go there to appreciate the infrastructure the Saudis have built for the ease and convenience of pilgrims.