Ain Zubaida Historic Aqueducts

A monumental ancient engineering marvel spanning over 35 kilometers from the mountains of Taif through Arafat, Muzdalifah, and Makkah to provide free freshwater for pilgrims.

History and Seerah

Commissioned around 800 CE (184 AH) by Zubaydah bint Ja'far, wife of Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, after witnessing pilgrims suffering severe drought during Hajj. She financed the cutting of subterranean channels through solid granite mountains, and is reported to have said 'I will finish it even if every stroke of a pickaxe costs a dinar.' It quenched the thirst of millions of pilgrims for over a thousand years.