Amazing Places

Well of Zamzam

The Well of Zamzam (or the Zamzam Well, or just Zamzam; Arabic: زمزم‎) is a well located within the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 20 m (66 ft) east of the Ka’bah. The well will never be dry until the dooms day. It’s also the miracle of ismail AS, Son of Ibrahim AS. Millions of pilgrims visit the well each year while performing the Hajj or Umrah pilgrimages, in order to drink its water.

Traditional origin of the Zamzam Well
Islamic history states that the Zamzam Well was revealed to Siti Hajar, the second wife of Ibrahim A.S and mother of Ismail A.S. By the instruction of Allah SWT, Ibrahim A.S left his wife and son at a spot in the desert and walked away. She was desperately seeking water for her infant son, but she could not find any, as Mecca is located in a hot dry valley with few sources of water. Hagar ran seven times back and forth in the scorching heat between the two hills of Safa and Marwah, looking for water. Getting thirstier by the second, the infant Ishmael scraped the land with his feet, where suddenly water sprang out.

The name of the well comes from the phrase Zomë Zomë, meaning stop was a command repeated by Siti hajar during her attempt to contain the spring water.

In Europe, alleged Zamzam water is frequently bottled in plastic containers of this type.

The History of Zamzam Well
According to IslamOnline, the well originally had two cisterns in the first era, one for drinking and one for ablution. At that time, it was a simple well surrounded by a fence of stones. Then in the era of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur  (154/155 H) a dome was built above the well, and it was tiled with marble. In (158/159 AH), Al- Mahdi rebuilt the well during his caliphate, and built a dome of teak which was covered with mosaic. One small dome covered the well, and a larger dome covered the room for the pilgrims. In (220 H) there was further restoration, and the dome was covered with marble during the caliphate of Al-Mu'tasim.

In 1417 (819/820 H), during the time of the Mamluks, the mosque was damaged by fire, and required restoration. Further restoration occurred in 1430 (833/834 H), and again in 1499 (904/95 H)during the time of Sultan Qaitbay, when the marble was replaced.

In modern times, the most extensive restoration took place to the dome during the era of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1915(1333/1334 H). To facilitate crowd control, the building housing the Zamzam was moved away from its original location, to get it out of the way of the Tawaf, when millions of pilgrims would circumambulate the Kaaba. The water of the well is now pumped to the eastern part of the mosque, where it was made available in separate locations for men and women.