Riyadh: The General Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques affairs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has revealed hitherto unseen images of ‘Hajr-e-Aswad’ or the ‘Black Stone’ creating a ripple among the faithful.
The new high resolution images were taken by the Engineering Studies Department of the Reasah Alharmain through ‘Focus Stack Panorama’ technology.
In a series of tweets through its official account the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques affairs stated that the “Focus Stack Panorama” technology is in which the images are combined with different clarity, in order to produce a single image with the greatest accuracy of the Black Stone.
The presidency indicated that the filming period took 7 hours, and the number of pictures reached 1050 with ‘Focus Stack Panorama’ technology. On the other hand, the image resolution reached 49,000 megapixels and the processing time took more than 50 hours.
The Black Stone is located in the southeastern corner of the Ka’aba or the House of God from the outside, and it is the starting and ending point of performing the Tawaf (circumambulation) around the Ka’aba. It has an oval shape and is reddish-black in color, and is 30 centimeters in diameter, according to the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques affairs.
The Black Stone “is part of the four pillars of the Holy Kaaba, which is the point from which the circumambulation begins and ends, and Muslims took that ritual from the actions of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Black Stone consists of eight pieces from the remainder of it on its face, grouped together in varying shapes, according to published reports.