TechnologyDigital infrastructure and AI
Haramain map combines route options, facility details and accessibility information
The authority described its existing visitor map on 24 October; its site lists categories for gates, services, lifts, escalators and routes for people with disabilities.
- Event
- First published on EPC Feed
- Sources
- 3 listed below
- Reading time
- 2 min
On 24 October, Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque described the features of its interactive map for the two sites. The Saudi Press Agency reported that the digital interface is available in seven languages and contains more than 950 points of interest, over 100,000 possible routes, and 17 categories. It also reported more than 650 QR codes and six interactive screens installed on site. The announcement describes an existing public service; it does not give a launch date. At the 25October source check, the authority’s landing page displayed inconsistent point counts: 900 in a feature tile and more than 950 in its metrics. The figures above are explicitly SPA’s dated report.
The authority’s map page explains how visitors can use the interface: choose the Grand Mosque or Prophet’s Mosque, explore landmarks, facilities and services, and select a landmark icon to see details. The page lists map categories including gates, toilets, principal landmarks, on-site services, lifts and escalators. These examples show the kind of location information exposed through the interface. The authority does not describe turn-by-turn positioning, live crowd routing, route calculation logic or update frequency, so the large number of possible routes should not be read as evidence of those functions.
The two destinations are presented separately within a single map service. SPA’s account names the Holy Kaaba, Maqam Ibrahim and Al-Safa and Al-Marwa among the Grand Mosque locations. For the Prophet’s Mosque, it names the Rawdah Al-Sharifah, the Prophet’s Chamber, prayer mihrabs and the Prophet’s pulpit. The authority’s map page says visitors can explore the locations and services and access details by selecting an icon. Neither source says that every point of interest has the same information or navigation options.
Accessibility is one stated element of the service. The interactive map page lists “landmarks and routes for people with disabilities” and “universal accessibility support tools.” The authority’s separate guide for visitors with disabilities describes physical routes at the Grand Mosque, including Ajyad Bridge in the western courtyard leading to the first floor of the Mataf, Shubaikah Bridge near Gate 64, and a route to Marwah through the eastern courtyards. It also identifies elevators and escalators with guiding signs and symbols. The two pages establish that accessible routes and facilities are part of the authority’s wider visitor information; they do not prove that every physical route in that guide appears in the interactive map.
The 24 October SPA report says the service is intended to help visitors reach destinations according to their needs and preferred languages. The authority’s own map page describes it as a digital service to help visitors explore facilities and services and improve movement within the two sites. The disclosed combination of an online interface, QR codes and on-site screens gives visitors several access points to location information. No supplier, development cost, technical architecture or artificial-intelligence feature is identified in the sources, and none is assumed here. The public map is linked from the authority’s official portal.
Sources
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