MECCA | Abraj Al-Bait | 601m | 1972ft | 95 fl | T/O

[Pizzuti]

But one of the strong themes you see all across Islam is that Mosques are supposed to be extremely serene and you're supposed to be extremely focused on prayer.

The whole argument for keeping men and women separated by a screen is that being in the presence of the opposite gender is distracting, and separation ads to the serenity.

I'm not sure exactly why this mosque was left open, but I've always assumed it's because it was simply too expensive to build a massive dome, and pointless since Mecca is very dry and usually cloudless anyway, so why not open it up to the blue sky during Hajj time?

The Masjid-al-Haram is in the middle of a city, but I'd still guess that there is a kind of haunted silence when you're standing in the middle of that open space when it is empty. Not any longer, though. Now it'll be a bustling city, surrounded by skyscrapers - you're in Times Square! What's next, big TV screens on the skyscrapers flashing McDonald's advertisements?

I know that massive skyscrapers and development lends itself to the feeling of "energy" that a lot of us get excited about when we picture millions and millions of people filling the mosque and pouring in from surrounding hotels and prayer rooms. But I think our sense might be a little contrary to what the mosque is about.

I've been defending this project for a while on the grounds that few of us commenting here are Muslim, so we don't really know if the religion would favor an isolated prayer site or a busy, integrated prayer site. After seeing that picture, though, I think I sort of switch sides, considering how much sky view is actually taken up by buildings.