The Kaaba, a large black cubic structure located at the centre of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, is Islam’s holiest site; its doors are only opened for washing or for visiting Muslim VIPs. A Facebook post recently circulating in Nigeria claims to show the interior of the structure, with sparkling chandeliers. However, the claim is false: the video was filmed in Iraq and shows the inside of a Sufi scholar’s mausoleum. Genuine footage from inside the Kaaba shows that it looks very different.

“Inside view Kaaba,” reads the post shared on August 7, 2022. A TikTok video in the post has been viewed more than 75,000 times.

The video shows a man dressed in a white kaftan and cap opening the doors to a building. Inside, the walls are decorated with Arabic calligraphy while chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The video also shows two other doors that lead to inner rooms.

The Nigerian account that posted the video has 38,000 followers and shares pictures, videos and memes about Islam.

About 50 percent of Nigeria’s population is Muslim. The country has the fifth largest Muslim population in the world and is projected to become the third highest by 2060.

But the claim that the video shows the Kaaba’s interior is false.

Sufi shrine

Using the InVID-WeVerify video verification tool, AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage and found that the same video was posted by a TikTok account called “fadar_bege” months earlier, on April 14, 2022, without any reference to...

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