Mecca is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above sea level. Its last recorded population was 1,578,722 in 2015. Its estimated metropolitan population in 2020 is 2.042million, making it the third-most populated city in Saudi Arabia after Riyadh and Jeddah. Pilgrims more than triple this number every year during the pilgrimage, observed in the twelfth Hijri month of.