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Holy Kaaba ‘Kiswa’ Cover Is Replaced in Annual Tradition

The installed Kiswa weighs around 1,350 kilograms and is 14 meters high, (SPA)
The installed Kiswa weighs around 1,350 kilograms and is 14 meters high, (SPA)
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Holy Kaaba ‘Kiswa’ Cover Is Replaced in Annual Tradition

The installed Kiswa weighs around 1,350 kilograms and is 14 meters high, (SPA)
The installed Kiswa weighs around 1,350 kilograms and is 14 meters high, (SPA)

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque adorned on Sunday the holy Kaaba in Makkah with a new cover, or Kiswa.

Replacing the Kiswa is an annual tradition. A team from the King Abdulaziz Complex for Holy Kaaba Kiswa, consisting of 159 craftsmen, carried out the operation.

A team from the King Abdulaziz Complex for Holy Kaaba Kiswa, consisting of 159 craftsmen, carried out the operation. (SPA)

The installed Kiswa, weighing around 1,350 kilograms and standing 14 meters high, consists of four separate sides and a door curtain. The belt was aligned in a straight line along the four sides and sewn into place.

The Kiswa is made of around 1,000 kilograms of raw silk, dyed black within the complex, 120 kilograms of gold threads, and 100 kilograms of silver threads. The Kiswa belt consists of 16 pieces, along with seven pieces below the belt.

Replacing the Kiswa is an annual tradition. (SPA)

The King Abdulaziz Complex for Holy Kaaba Kiswa employs around 200 craftsmen and administrators.

The complex includes several departments: dyeing and automated weaving, hand weaving, printing, belt-making, gilding, sewing, and assembly of the Kiswa.

The General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque adorned on Sunday the holy Kaaba in Makkah with a new cover. (SPA)

It houses the world's largest sewing machine, measuring 16 meters, and operating with computerized systems. Additionally, there are supporting departments such as the laboratory, administrative services, quality control, public relations, health services for workers, and occupational safety.

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Rare New Zealand Snail Filmed for First Time Laying an Egg from its Neck

In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)
In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)
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Rare New Zealand Snail Filmed for First Time Laying an Egg from its Neck

In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)
In this image made from video, a Powelliphanta augusta snail lays an egg from it's neck at the Hokitika Snail Housing facility, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Hokitika, New Zealand. (Lisa Flanagan/New Zealand Department of Conservation via AP)

The strange reproductive habits of a large, carnivorous New Zealand snail were once shrouded in mystery. Now footage of the snail laying an egg from its neck has been captured for the first time, the country’s conservation agency said Wednesday.
What looks like a tiny hen’s egg is seen emerging from an opening below the head of the Powelliphanta augusta snail, a threatened species endemic to New Zealand.
The video was taken at a facility on the South Island’s West Coast, where conservation rangers attempting to save the species from extinction have cared for a population of the snails in chilled containers for nearly two decades, The Associated Press reported.
The conditions in the containers mimic the alpine weather in their only former habitat — a remote mountain they were named for, on the West Coast of the South Island, that has been engulfed by mining.
Observing their habits Lisa Flanagan from the Department of Conservation, who has worked with the creatures for 12 years, said the species still holds surprises.
“It’s remarkable that in all the time we’ve spent caring for the snails, this is the first time we’ve seen one lay an egg,” she said in a statement.
Like other snails, Powelliphanta augusta are hermaphrodites, which explains how the creatures can reproduce when encased in a hard shell. The invertebrate uses a genital pore on the right side of its body, just below the head, to simultaneously exchange sperm with another snail, which is stored until each creates an egg.
Each snail takes eight years to reach sexual maturity, after which it lays about five eggs a year. The egg can take more than a year to hatch.
“Some of our captive snails are between 25 and 30 years old,” said Flanagan. “They’re polar opposites to the pest garden snail we introduced to New Zealand, which is like a weed, with thousands of offspring each year and a short life.”
The dozens of species and subspecies of Powelliphanta snails are only found in New Zealand, mostly in rugged forest and grassland settings where they are threatened by habitat loss.
They are carnivores that slurp up earthworms like noodles, and are some of the world’s largest snails, with oversized, distinctive shells in a range of rich earth colors and swirling patterns.
The Powelliphanta augusta was the center of public uproar and legal proceedings in the early 2000s, when an energy company’s plans to mine for coal threatened to destroy the snails’ habitat.
Some 4,000 were removed from the site and relocated, while 2,000 more were housed in chilled storage in the West Coast town of Hokitika to ensure the preservation of the species, which is slow to breed and doesn't adapt well to new habitats.
In 2011, some 800 of the snails accidentally died in a Department of Conservation refrigerator with faulty temperature control.
But the species’ slow survival continues: In March this year, there were nearly 1,900 snails and nearly 2,200 eggs in captivity, the conservation agency said.