Authorities in Saudi Arabia released new specially processed images of the Hajar Aswad in the Grand Mosque in Makkah.
The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosque took over a thousand photographs of the Black Stone and the shrine of Ibrahim. Using Fox Stack Panorama technology, it combines images with varying degrees of clarity to produce a single accurate high-resolution picture of the Hajar Aswad
Sultan bin Ati Al-Qurashi, the undersecretary-general for the Projects and Engineering Studies Agency at the presidency said that the authority was interested in using the latest imaging techniques because of the Black Stone’s importance to Muslims. With a whopping 49,000-megapixel, the images were taken over seven hours and required a week to edit. It is the first time the artifact is shown in such great detail.
The reddish-black, the oval-shaped stone is 30 cm in diameter and is located in the southeast corner of the Kaaba.
Positioned 1.5 meters above the ground inside a pure silver frame, it is the starting and finishing point of the circumambulation or tawaf.
” It is an advanced technique used for the first time in building a model that greatly simulates the shape and size of the shrine of our Prophet Ibrahim,” Al-Qurashi added.
The Projects and Engineering Studies Agency is building a virtual exhibition to display all these works in a 3D model that is considered an exact replica of the archaeological collection, and will include 123 different pieces from the Two Holy Mosques Architecture Museum.’
Source: Arabnews, @hsharifain