INCREDIBLE BLACK STONE IMAGES
Specially processed high-resolution images have been captured of the Black Stone, the ancient rock set into the corner of the Kaaba in Makkah, the centre of the holiest site in Islam.
The General Presidency for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque said it documented the Black Stone “with Focus Stack Panorama, which uses a technology in which images are combined ... to produce a single image with the greatest accuracy”.
The Black Stone, or Hajar Al Aswad, was placed in the Kaaba by the Prophet Mohammed in 605.
Focus stacking is a process of stitching together hundreds of images of parts of an object taken at different focal lengths to create a single, high-resolution image.
It is often used to create detailed landscapes and closeup shots.
Shot over seven hours, it took the team another 50 hours to combine the 1,050 photos to produce the 49,000-megapixel image.
For comparison, an iPhone 12 has a 12-megapixel camera.
The Black Stone comprises eight small rocks affixed to a large stone that is encased in a silver frame.
It marks the point from which the circumambulation begins and ends for tawaf, the ritual in which pilgrims go around the Kaaba seven times anticlockwise to complete Hajj or Umrah.
The pictures of the Black Stone took the internet by storm.
The hashtag #BlackStone trended on Twitter in Saudi Arabia as people shared the images.