Al Madinah Al Munawwarah Postal Code Is 42221, 42241, 42242, 42244, 42245, 42251, 42252, 42253, 42254, 42255, 42311, 42312, 42313, 42314, 42315, 42316

Al Madinah is a city located in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia, about 100 miles inland from the Red Sea and 275 miles from Mecca by road. It is the second holiest city in Islam, after Mecca. Madina is celebrated as the place from which Muhammad p.b.u.h established the Muslim community after his flight from Mecca (622 CE) and is where his body is entombed. A pilgrimage is made to his tomb in the city's chief mosque. The city lies on a fertile oasis and is bounded on the east by an extensive lava field. It is enclosed by arid hills belonging to the Hejaz mountain range. The highest of these hills is Mount Uḥud, which rises to more than 2,000 feet above the oasis. The central feature of the city is the Prophet's Mosque, which Muhammad p.b.u.h himself helped to build. Non-Muslims are not permitted to enter this sacred area of the city. The mosque complex has been expanded and improved over time by various caliphs and rulers of Islamic countries, and it is now a large complex that includes a new northern court with its surrounding colonnades. Other religious features of the oasis include the mosque of Qubāʾ, the first in Islamic history, from which the Prophet was vouchsafed a view of Mecca; the Mosque of the Two Qiblahs, commemorating the change of the prayer direction from Jerusalem to Mecca, at al-Rimāḥ; the tomb of Ḥamza, uncle of the Prophet and of his companions who fell in the Battle of Uḥud (625), in which the Prophet was wounded; and the cave in the flank of Uḥud in which the Prophet took refuge on that occasion.