Meare

A lakeside village of the Iron Age on the Somerset Levels in southwest England with groups of mounds similar to those at nearby Glastonbury. The settlement consisted of about 40 round houses built on desiccated peat and with timber and brushwood floors. It was surrounded by a palisade and occupied from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. The pottery dates from about 60 BC until about the time of the Roman invasions of the 1st century AD. The site was reoccupied during the 4th century. The Abbot's Tribunal, Glastonbury, houses some of the objects discovered during excavation.

A lakeside village of the Iron Age on the Somerset Levels in southwest England, which has produced evidence similar to that from the nearby site of Glastonbury. The settlement consisted of about 40 round houses built on dessicated peat and with timber and brushwood floors. It was surrounded by a palisade and occupied from the 3rd century bc to the 1st century ad. Mecca [Mekka]. A caravan town on the route from southern Arabia to Palestine and the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad, c570. The holy book of Islam, the Qur’an, was revealed to the Prophet partly on Mount Arafat, just outside Mecca, and partly at Medina, where he migrated in 622 — an event which marks the beginning of the Muslim era. Mecca is the most important Islamic centre of pilgrimage and all Muslims are supposed to visit the holy places at least once. The focal point of the pilgrimage (haj) is the sanctuary which contains the Ka’ba, a pre-lslamic shrine reconstructed in 608. According to Azraqi (d. 858), the new Ka’ba was built of alternate courses of stone and wood, a technique alien to Arabia, where timber is scarce, but common in Ethiopia. The Ka’ba was destroyed in the civil war of683 and rebuilt the following year. Now entirely of stone, it was embellished (according to Mas’udi) with mosaic brought from a church at San’a in Yemen.