Today, Sunday, the sky of Mecca witnesses the second and final solar zenith ("Tasamumt") of this year over the Holy Kaaba.

The president of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Majid Abu Zahra, said, "The second zenith occurs with the apparent return of the sun from the Tropic of Cancer, heading south towards the equator, passing the meridian line. The sun reaches an altitude of approximately 90 degrees at the time of Zuhr prayer at the Holy Mosque, with the sun at 12:26:44 PM local time, making the meridian shadow zero and the shadow of the Holy Kaaba disappears."

Abu Zahra explained that "the reason for the sun’s zenith phenomenon over the Holy Kaaba is due to the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis by an angle of 23.5 degrees, which causes the sun to appear to move between the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south, passing through the equator as the Earth orbits the sun once each year," according to the Saudi Press Agency "SPA".

He also pointed out that regions located at latitudes less than 23.5 degrees north or south all witness this event twice a year but at different times depending on the latitude of that place. It characterizes places on Earth confined between the equator and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

He clarified that the most prominent use of this astronomical phenomenon is determining the direction toward the Qibla, especially in areas far from the city of Mecca in the Arab and Islamic countries and regions where the sun is above the horizon. He added that using any vertically fixed object and observing its shadow at the moment of zenith, the direction opposite to the shadow points directly toward Mecca with accuracy comparable to the precision of digital smartphone applications.