Determined to provide the Prophet’s Mosque with space and facilities commensurate with its importance as of one of Islam’s two holiest sites, King Fahd gave orders for what must be the greatest Mosque expansion program in the history of Islam.
The project was launched by King Fahd in 1985. Before the expansion could begin, it was necessary to prepare the area on which the extensions were to be built. This operation alone involved a Herculean effort. Almost 400 buildings had to be demolished. Because the site was holy and the engineers were determined to avoid any possibility of damage to the existing Mosque, explosives were not employed. Instead, the supporting posts of each building were weakened and then ripped out by bulldozers. The resultant rubble, estimated to have been 654,000 cubic yards [500,000 cu m], was used to landfill areas on the outskirts of Madinah in preparation for further expansion of the city.
