Hi Doug,
Notwithstanding your gratuitous thesis on measurements, I am attaching the following:
"It is called Kaaba because it is roughly the shape of a cube- rectangular box structure. It is also known as ’The Ancient House’ because it dates back to the time of the Prophet Abraham. It is a sacred place where sins must not be committed. It was said that the Kaaba was erected by angels, and renovated by Adam, peace be upon him, and his sons. Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said that Noah and Hud passed by Asfan Valley on their way to Makkah to perform Hajj (pilgrimage). It is widely known that Noah and Hud were sent before Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him. When the flood took place in the era of Prophet Noah, the Kaaba was destroyed and its bases were buried underneath sand and gravel. Allah the Almighty says in the Holy Qur’an, “And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael, [saying], "Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Indeed You are the Hearing, the Knowing” [2:127]. This verse makes it abundantly clear that Abraham did not lay down the foundations of the Kaaba but, rather, he was the one who erected it.
According to Al-Azraqi, Abraham, peace be upon him, erected the Kaaba in a way that made it stand 4 meters high with the side between the Black Stone and the Yemeni Corner measuring 11 meters long, and the sides between the Black Stone and the Iraqi corner measuring 15 meters long, It had two open doors and no roof on top. The Archangel Gabriel brought down the Black Stone and handed it to Abraham who set it in its place. The four corners of the Kaaba roughly face the four cardinal directions of the compass. To the eastern corner of the Kaaba lays the Black Stone, the Yemeni Corner lays to the south, the Iraqi corner to the north, and the Levantine corner to the west.
The Kaaba was restored and renovated by the Amaleks, followed by Jurham, then Qusai bin Kilab, the grandfather of Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him. Five years before the revelation of Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessing of Allah be upon him, the draperies on the outer wall of the Kaaba caught fire and part of the Kaaba was destroyed by severe rain. Quraish, Prophet Mohammad’s tribe, decide to demolish and rebuild it with money earned through legal means only, i.e. ill-gotten money should not go towards renovating and rebuilding the Kaaba. Quraish made some changes to the Kaaba’s structure – they increased the height by 18 cubits, built a wood roof, decreased the width by 6 cubits, and built only one door so that they could allow whoever they wanted to go inside. After renovations were finished, a feud broke out among the tribes over who would get the honor of setting the Black Stone in its place. Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, placed a sheet of cloth on the ground, put the stone on it, and asked leaders of each tribe to lift the cloth together. Then he himself placed the stone in its proper place.
Abdullah ibn Al-Zubayr heard his aunt Aisha say that Prophet Mohammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, told her, “O Aisha! Had it not been for the fact that your people have recently embraced Islam, I would have ordered them to demolish the Kaaba and I would have included it in the portion which had been left, and would have made it at a level with the ground and would have built two doors for it, one towards the east and the other towards the west, and then by doing so it would have been built on the foundations laid down by Abraham.” This saying (hadith) was narrated by Sahih Bukhari and Muslim. Abdullah bin Al-Zubayr renovated and rebuilt the Kaaba on the old foundations laid down by the Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him. About 6 cubits were included in the structure, 29 cubits were added to the height, and two doors adjacent to the ground were built. When Abdullah ibn Al-Zubayr was killed, Abdul Malek bin Marwan doubted the saying Ibn Al-Zubayr heard Aisha say, and ordered Al-Hajaj to restore the Kaaba to its old structure as Quraish had it. The western door was closed, the eastern door was elevated, and Al-Hijr (explained below) was reduced by 4 cubits. When Abdul Malek knew that Ibn Zubayr did not lie, he felt great remorse and restored the Kaaba to the way Ibn Zubayr had built it.
When Harun Al-Rasheed wanted to rebuild the Kaaba the way Ibn Al-Zubayr rebuilt it, he consulted Imam Malik who said to him, “O Emir of the Believers! I entreat you not to make the Kaaba a toy in the hands of kings who will succeed you and who will want to demolish and rebuild the Kaaba just like you did. The constant demolition and rebuilding will undermine the sacredness of the Kaaba in people’s eyes.” Harun Al-Rasheed changed his mind. Ever since then, renovations and repairs have continued to take place but without making any radical changes to the overall dimensions and measurements of the Kaaba. The largest renovations and repairs took place in the year 1417 H (1996)."
Regards.
