Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Makkah, Islam’s holiest city, on Friday for the biggest Haj pilgrimage in years, with more than two million expected to brave the scorching Saudi Arabian heat.
Pilgrims in white robes and sandals packed the ancient city, now dotted with luxury hotels and air-conditioned shopping malls, after flooding in on planes, buses, and trains for the annual rites.
This year’s Haj — one of the world’s biggest annual religious gatherings — could break attendance records, officials said.
“As the Haj draws near, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prepares… for the largest Islamic gathering in history,” Minister of Haj and Umrah Tawfiq Al-Rabiah said in a video published by the ministry this week.
Rites include circling the Kaaba, the large black cube in Makkah’s Grand Mosque, praying on Mount Arafat and “stoning the devil” by throwing pebbles at three giant concrete walls representing Satan.
More than two million people from more than 160 countries will attend — a dramatic increase on the 926,000 from last year, when numbers were capped at one million post-pandemic.—AFP
