Tech
I just flew to Makkah without leaving my chair
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abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
May 2, 2010 at 3:52 AM
Sorry, when the page was first posted at midnight, none of the embedded maps were displaying. I forgot to tell the editors how to avoid turning them off by mistake. :)
Bushra
May 2, 2010 at 10:47 AM
When I saw the title for this article, the first thing that popped into my head was ‘somebody’s been playing around with jinns!’ and then when that misconception was dispelled, I got a little excited thinking that I might be able to view the Ka’aba in 3D.
How disappointed I was to find that Google Earth developers put lots of effort into getting the window and shutter details of Zamzam Towers and Makkah Towers, and even the intricate details of the doorway to Dar Al-Tawhid Intercontinental and yet, Masjid al-Haram and everything within it still remains 2D. :-(
abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
May 2, 2010 at 1:44 PM
I’m glad you picked up on the humor :)
I’ve noticed that effect sometimes with the plug-in. Try zoooooming out farther, till the Haram is small part of your map, then zoom back in. InshaAllah, you’ll get the 3-D effect.
If that fails, though, I recommend the “larger map” or as PakistaniMD (there’s anonymity for you!) recommends, Google Earth (which you can even get for Android phones now). And nothing beats the real thing — I mean traveling there physically, the halal way. :)
Bushra
May 3, 2010 at 7:23 AM
It worked, finally! Does this mean we can do a virtual ‘Umrah? I mean, we can even do salaah behind Maqaam Ibrahim!
Sayf
May 3, 2010 at 7:29 PM
You know, that made me realize this could be an excellent tool for educating people on how to perform Hajj/Umrah!
abuabdAllah Tariq Ahmed
May 6, 2010 at 4:30 PM
LOL, Hajj simulators. Would be good if someone can overlay a crowd and award points for not bumping the opposite gender, etc. :)
Sayf
May 2, 2010 at 11:40 AM
Why does the Ka’bah look so rectangular? The distance between the Yemeni corner and the Black Stone is a bit longer than that (and feels even longer if you’re trying to get to the Black Stone lol).
abu abdAllah Tariq Ahmed
May 2, 2010 at 1:48 PM
I agree. :) Google needs a bot that searches for on-line pics of famous places and progressively synthesizes from them better and better 3-D representations for Google Earth.
That way there could be a kind of gauge for how much people love to visit (at least photograph) any one of these sites — better res and accuracy would indicate a lot of good pics available.
And such a bot would probably find a trove of pics of the Haramain, wAllaho’Alim.
PakistaniMD
May 2, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Google Earth will give you a far better experience than a plug-in. Google Earth is also more interactive; I urge you to try that…. NYC, Boston, London have all be “3d”ed and they look awesome!
Bushra
May 2, 2010 at 4:18 PM
I tried Google Earth…nothing. The Ka’aba is still flat. :-(
habib
May 3, 2010 at 10:11 AM
Salam.
Yo this thing sucks. Google earth is wayyyy better.
Peace out!
leo
May 4, 2010 at 10:23 AM
I dont know what im doing akhi!
I zoom but get no 3D. Help. I want to fly to makkah without leaving my chair.
abuabdAllah Tariq Ahmed
May 6, 2010 at 4:31 PM
Were you able to download the extension? When you look at a Google Map, does an “Earth” button appear at the top-right of the map?