MECCA. 183 



a torrent from the hills, no other material altera- 

 tions or improvements took place till the eighteenth 

 century; so that the building, as it now appears, 

 may be almost wholly ascribed to the munificence 

 of the last sultans of Egypt and the Turkish empe- 

 rors. In the autumn of 1816, several artists and 

 workmen sent from Constantinople were employed 

 in repairing the damage done by the Wahabees. 



The Temple stands near the middle of the city : 

 it is a quadrilateral building, much resembling in 

 form, according to Pitts,* that of the Royal Ex- 



* Joseph Pitts of Exeter was the first Englishman we know 

 of that visited either of the holy cities. The ship in which he 

 sailed being captured in 1678 by a Moorish pirate, he was car- 

 ried to Algiers, where he remained in slavery fifteen years. By 

 cruel treatment he was compelled to become a Mussulman : — 

 in that capacity he accompanied his master, an old Turkish 

 bachelor, on his pilgrimage to Mecca, who gave him his liberty 

 on their return. His narrative is homely, but surprisingly accu- 

 rate. It is curious that Gibbon seems not to have seen or known 

 of it. A much earlier traveller, and the first Christian in modern 

 times that gave a tolerable account of Arabia, was Ludovico 

 Barthema of Bologna, who, in 1503, &c. visited Egj'pt, Syria, 

 Arabia, Persia, and India. At Damascus he contrived, in the 

 guise of a Mamlouk soldier, to accompany one of the pilgrim 

 caravans to Mecca and Medina, where he paid his devoirs at 

 the tomb of Mohammed, and went through the whole ceremo- 

 nies of the haj ; after which he escaped to Jidda, and thence by 

 way of Aden to Persia. The caravan, he says, consisted of 

 35,000 persons, and 40,000 camels. (See his travels in Ramu- 

 sio's Raccolta delle Navigat. et Viaggi, tome i.) The Sheik Ibn 

 Batuta, whose travels have been recently translated by Pro- 

 fessor Lee of Cambridge, performed the pilgrimage in 1332 ; 

 but they contain few facts concerning Arabia. His whole ac- 

 count of Mecca is "May God ennoble it !" He observes the 

 same brevity regarding Sanaa, Aden, Muscat, and other towns 

 which he visited. Seetzen was also at Mecca during the time 

 of the pilgrimage, under the protection of a Moorish merchant ; 

 but his stay was short, and his description differs little from 

 those of Ali Bey and Burckhardt. He went to Sanaa, which 

 he represents as superior to most cities that he had seen in 

 Palestine, Syria, or Arabia. 



