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Sun to Align Directly with Kaaba on Tuesday in Rare Phenomenon 

Muslim worshippers pray around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on June 12, 2024. (AFP)
Muslim worshippers pray around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on June 12, 2024. (AFP)
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Sun to Align Directly with Kaaba on Tuesday in Rare Phenomenon 

Muslim worshippers pray around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on June 12, 2024. (AFP)
Muslim worshippers pray around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, on June 12, 2024. (AFP)

The holy city of Makkah will witness a precise astronomical phenomenon on Tuesday as the sun passes directly overhead the Holy Kaaba.

According to the Noor Astronomy Association in the Qassim Region, this perpendicular solar event will take place during the noon call to prayer in Makkah at 12:18 p.m., resulting in the complete disappearance of the Kaaba’s shadow.

President of Noor Astronomy Issa Al-Ghafili explained that this event occurs as the sun traverses between the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Monday. 

The alignment allows the determination of the Qibla direction from any location worldwide without the need for additional tools.

During this moment of perpendicularity, the Qibla's direction is exactly opposite to the shadows cast by mosque minarets, lampposts, and tall towers, he added.

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Forest Fire Near Athens Under Control, But Area on High Alert

A firefighting airplane sprays water on a hill in Thymari, south of Athens, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (104 Fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
A firefighting airplane sprays water on a hill in Thymari, south of Athens, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (104 Fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
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Forest Fire Near Athens Under Control, But Area on High Alert

A firefighting airplane sprays water on a hill in Thymari, south of Athens, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (104 Fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
A firefighting airplane sprays water on a hill in Thymari, south of Athens, Thursday, June 26, 2025. (104 Fahrenheit). (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greek firefighters said Friday that a forest blaze that had forced evacuations around Athens was under control, but warned that scorching temperatures were keeping fire risk at a highly elevated level around the capital and on northern Aegean islands.

Greece has become particularly vulnerable in recent years to fires in the summer fueled by strong winds, drought and high temperatures linked to climate change.

The fire around Athens broke on Thursday afternoon near the towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Athens, and forced the evacuation of five villages popular with local and foreign tourists, AFP reported.

Though it was under control on Friday, a volatile combination of high temperatures and strong winds meant that a high risk of other fires breaking out remained, especially in the Attica region around the Greek capital and some islands in the north Aegean Sea, authorities said.

A spokesman for the fire service told AFP that over 100 firefighters with 37 vehicles and a helicopter were on standby near Palaia Fokaia and Thymari.

Fields, olive groves and some houses were ravaged by the blaze.

The blaze came on the heels of another fire on the island of Chios -- Greece's fifth-largest island -- which had destroyed more than 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land in four days.

Weather agencies forecast a heatwave in the coming days with temperatures of more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), including in the capital Athens.