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The structure is a stone cube of sorts, mostly solid masonry, with an exterior somewhat roughened by the passage of time. There is, or perhaps was, a stairway internal to the structure, beginning near one corner, and going up to the roof. There was a large, seated-buddha-lookin’ idol basically covering the top of the kaaba in Greek times and probably for some while thereafter.

I’m not too sure about that thing I posted above (the Hindu origin of the site), but the seven circuits of the kaaba made by pilgrims is indeed a pagan holdover or leftover, and the kaaba itself antedates the big old Mo by 1000 years or more. There are those who believe that the 40 years of wandering by the post-Exodus Hebrew tribes took place in Arabia, rather than in the Sinai and points east, and it’s possible that Mohammed (who was a plagiarist) or one of the anonymous editors that followed came up with the idea that Abraham built the kaaba. It’s unlikely that the Abrahamic origin is anything but a concocted bit of supporting myth.

The ancients were in the habit of sending wooden copies of their principal gods to Mecca. They also sent along copies of their scriptures or stories, if any. These things were preserved some way ~ probably like the jars at Qumran further West.

There were a number of Jewish Arabian tribes in the Peninsula back in the good old days and they traveled around with their Torahs ~ which, when they were worn out, were buried in the Earth as is the Jewish custom.

The religious reformer who seems to have become known as Mohammad ALSO traveled to the West bank of the Red Sea ~ so he personally had knowledge of people who professed Coptic Christianity.

Later, after the conquest of Damascus, and a long time after Mohammad had died, the leadership elite of the Arab army met in Damascus (and maybe Mecca as well) and people brought in messages that Mohammad had said ~ one guy might have a small board, one a large board, or someone else just a piece of bark ~ these items were examined by a committee of scholars familiar with the Koran and possibly other ancient religious documents.

These items turned into the Hadiths ~ or stories of Mohammad and his followers ~ and they are evaluated in terms of the number of independent sources that could be found for them.

Obviously much of the Koran is derived from buried Torah scrolls dug up out of the desert by Arabs, and some of it is less clearly derived from OTHER ancient religious texts dug up in Mecca. The most recent discovery is that a great deal of the Koran consists of materials taken from a missionary handbook prepared in Damascus ~ it was to be used by Christian missionaries out to convert the Arabs to Christianity.

Frankly it is no longer possible for Moslems to evaluate the documents underlying Islam. Too many people are ready to cut off the head of any apostate (because critical exegeses is considered heresy).

That leaves it to Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Secularists to provide whatever critical scientific evaluation can be made of the Koran and the Hadiths.