What has happened to Safa and Marwa, why they are size of large rocks?

[Samandri]

What has happened to the "hills" of Safa and Marwa, why they are size of large rocks rather than size of hills?. Has Saudis done some thing to it or they were always like this?

Mount Safa's height is only 15 meters and Mount Marwa's height is only 8 meters.

[Traveller]

What has happened to the "hills" of Safa and Marwa, why they are size of large rocks rather than size of hills?. Has Saudis done some thing to it or they were always like this?

Mount Safa's height is only 15 meters and Mount Marwa's height is only 8 meters.

The Saudis cut it down I am sure.

[torkham]

I remember same rock dimensions from my childhood visits in early 70s. Me and my brothers would clamber on top of the rocks, there was no glass fence back then.
I suspect the masjid grew around, and the two prominences have been left untiled.

[maneatinglizard]

They didn't cut them down or anything like that, rather they built around and over them.

Those areas are part of the Masjid now, so they've gradually flattened the area (by tiling over it, not actually removing the mountains) to make it easier to traverse.

I went there in 2006/2007, and you could still walk on the tops of the mountains. Since then I think they've walled them off. While I feel like it's a shame that people are no longer able to walk on those mountains themselves, it was done for safety reasons.

[Samandri]

So it seems they were always of this height and are not exactly mountains. I have found this 1874's account of pilgrimage to Mecca and it says Safa and Marwa little deserve its name of "mountain" and are just little rises.

Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina: 3 - Richard Francis Burton - Google Books

[Karachi]

These are the original rocks, Saudis covered them some 15 years back, but looks like they removed the covering now