Mecca. An international airport, named the Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz International Airport, now serves the city and is located on Highway 340, known locally as the Old Qassim Road. The city now sits at the crossroads of two major Saudi Arabian highways, Highway 60, known as the Qassim–Medina Highway, and Highway 15 which connects the city to Mecca in the south and onward and Tabuk in the north and onward, known as the Al Hijrah Highway or Al Hijrah Road, after Muhammad's journey. The old Ottoman railway system was shutdown after their departure from the region and the old railway station has now been converted into a museum. The city has recently seen another connection and mode of transport between it and Mecca, the Haramain high-speed railway line connects the two cities via King Abdullah Economic City near Rabigh, King Abdulaziz International Airport and the city of Jeddah in under 3 hours. Though the city's sacred core of the old city is off limits to non-Muslims, the Haram area of Medina itself is much smaller than that of Mecca and Medina has recently seen an increase in the number of Muslim and Non-Muslim expatriate workers of other nationalities, most commonly South Asian peoples and people from other countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Almost all of the historic city has been demolished in the Saudi era. The rebuilt city is centered on the vastly expanded al-Masjid an-Nabawi. Destruction of heritage in Medina Saudi Arabia is hostile to any reverence given to historical or religious places of significance for fear that it may give rise to shirk (idolatry). As a consequence, under Saudi rule, Medina has suffered from considerable destruction of its physical heritage including the loss of many buildings over a thousand years old. Critics have described this as "Saudi vandalism" and claim that 300 historic sites linked to Muhammad, his family or companions have been lost in Medina and Mecca over the last 50 years. The most famous example of this is the demolition of al-Baqi. Geography Medina is located in the Hejaz region which is a 200 km (124 mi) wide strip between the Nafud desert and the Red Sea. Located approximately 720 km (447 mi) northwest of Riyadh which is at the center of the Saudi desert, the city is 250 km (155 mi) away from the west coast of Saudi Arabia and at an elevation of