"Seven Holy Cities of Islam"?

[Verbose]

Madinah
Makkah
Mecca
Medina
Jerusalam
Karbala
Chinguetti

Looks a tad funny...
Isn't it:
Makkah=Mecca
Madinah=Medina

Karbala is Shiite. Chinguetti? I'd like to know more about it.

 

[Princeps]

Mecca
Medina
Jerusalem
Najaf
Karbala
Mashhad
Qom

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Ok, once again:
Kerbala, Najaf and Qom are Shiite holy cities.
We're only talking about Sunnite ones .
And, to stress it once more:
I mainly want to know what this "7 Holy Cities" are supposed to mean. That's not a term I know what it it means, and not a term where you can find any net-info about. It only gets repeatedly mentioned in city infos of Kairouan and Timbuktu.
But unfortunately, net sources about Islam topics are in general sparse...

 

[Princeps]

Ok, once again:
Kerbala, Najaf and Qom are Shiite holy cities.
We're only talking about Sunnite ones .

Well acording to wikipedia sunnite holy cities are only three.

1. Mecca
2. Medina
3. Jerusalem

Shi'a Islam

In addition to the cities listed above under Islam

1. Najaf
2. Karbala
3. Mashhad
4. Qom

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Well, according to Wikipedia Timbuktu is "one of the seven Holy Cities of Islam" .
That's where I first stumbled over that phrase...

 

[Princeps]

Well, according to Wikipedia Timbuktu is "one of the seven Holy Cities of Islam" .
That's where I first stumbled over that phrase...

And, the great wall of china is ''the eight wonder of the world''

 

[Greek Stud]

In Ancient Greek the number 7 had the relavence of being the number that meant 'infinity'. As to the Seven Wonders of the World, I understand that Seven were first listed, but the continuance of adding others also relates to there being infinite Wonders.