Two million Muslims have flooded into Saudi Arabia’s Mina Valley from Mecca for the start of the Hajj pilgrimage this week. Dressed in simple white garments and freed from their worldly possessions, they are following in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad. But in Islam’s holiest city, there is increasingly little sign of the prophet’s legacy – or the frugal life he espoused. “The authorities are trying to destroy anything in Mecca that is associated with the prophet’s life,” says Irfan al-Alawi, director of the UK-based Islamic Heritage Research Foundation, who recently returned from a trip to the city. “They have already bulldozed the house of his wife, his grandson and his companion – and now they are coming for his birthplace. And for what? Yet more seven-star hotels.”

Read More: As the Hajj Begins, the Destruction of Mecca’s Heritage Continues

The authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun dismantling some of the oldest sections of Islam’s most important mosque as part of a highly controversial multi-billion pound expansion. Photographs obtained by The Independent reveal how workers with drills and mechanical diggers have started demolishing some Ottoman and Abbasid sections on the eastern side of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca.

Read More: The Photos Saudi Arabia Does Not Want Seen

An Ottoman-era portico in Mecca’s Grand Mosque has become the latest battleground in a conflict between those who want to preserve the city’s architectural heritage and Saudi authorities pushing for redevelopment. The 17th century portico – one of the oldest parts of the Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest – is being removed by Mecca authorities as part of an expansion project to create more space for soaring numbers of pilgrims.

Read More: Mecca Redevelopment

Related Story: Heritage, Pilgrimage and the War on History

In the Grand Mosque of Mecca, is an elegant, Ottoman portico from the 17th century. In the latest development plan developed for the city of Mecca by Saudi authorities, the portico has been ordered destroyed. Its demolition, a familiar sight in Mecca, would have proceeded unnoticed, were it not for an objection raised by a Saudi historian based in the United Kingdom who raised his voice against what he saw was an ordered evisceration of Meccan history.

Read More: Heritage, Pilgrimage and the War on History