The holiest place of Islam, the Ka’ba in Mecca, is dedicated to the direction of the canonical prayers by the Prophet Muhammad. As the centre of the faith, the Ka’ba is also the final destination of the pilgrimage which every Muslim tries to make at least once in a lifetime, and the Ottoman sultans were obliged to ensure that the faithful could carry out their religious duties, of which the pilgrimage is one. The prestige of the sultanate, therefore, very much depended on the safety of the pilgrimage routes, which they guaranteed mainly by payments to the Bedouins, whose territories the caravans crossed en-route to Mecca. They also took measures to protect the resting places of the pilgrims in the desert by building forts. At the beginning of the 20th century modern technical achievements improved transportation to the region with the construction of the Hijaz railway.