Medina: Islam's second holiest city

The second holiest city of Islam after Mecca, Medina is home to the mosque where the Prophet Muhammad is buried.

Entry to the city is reserved for Muslims; the rest of the itinerary is organised with local guides.

The Mosque of the Prophet, the second largest mosque in the world after the one in Mecca, houses the tomb of Muhammad beneath its famous green dome.

A few steps away, the mosque also hosts the Garden of Riyad al-Jannah, an area considered by Islamic tradition to be a fragment of paradise on earth.

Continuing on, one visits the Mosque of Quba, the first mosque ever built in Islam, erected according to tradition by Muhammad himself upon his arrival in Medina in 622.

In the evening, the site of Mount Uhud, theater of an important battle in the early years of Islam, recalls one of the foundational episodes of the first Muslim community.

Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina in 622, known as the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar and the moment when the city became the first political and religious center of the Muslim community.

The green dome of the Prophet's Mosque, added only in the nineteenth century above the burial chamber, remains today one of the most recognizable symbols throughout the entire Islamic world.