Muslim worshippers at about 200 old mosques in Mecca had been praying in the wrong direction for decades because the mosques were not built correctly, a Saudi newspaper said on Sunday.
The mosques had not been built precisely based on the qibla, the official alignment with the holy Kaaba shrine at the centre of Mecca's Al-Haram mosque, the Saudi Gazette reported.
Muslims around the world are bound to orient their daily prayers towards the ancient Kaaba, and mosques everywhere are built to face the black-shrouded building, or have indicators of its direction.
The discrepancy was only realised after looking at the old mosques, some built more than 50 years ago, from atop the new skyscrapers being constructed in Islam's holiest city in western Saudi Arabia, the report said.
The pan-Arab Al-Hayat paper said Tawfik al-Sudairy, the Islamic Affairs Ministry deputy secretary, had downplayed the problem.
"There are no major errors, but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques. In any case, it does not affect the prayers," Sudairy was quoted as saying.
Mecca experts had suggested that the errant mosques install a correct indicator of the qibla, the Saudi Gazette said. - Sapa-AFP
