(Mecca) More than two million Muslims began the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia on Sunday in blistering heat, the first with so many worshipers in the kingdom since the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the heart of the Great Mosque of Mecca, the faithful from 160 countries, began early the ritual of “tawaf”, or the convolutions around the Kaaba, a large cubic structure draped in a black fabric embroidered with gold, to which Muslims around the world turn for prayer.
PHOTO AMR NABIL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Saudi official said Sunday he expects a record crowd. “This year we will witness the greatest pilgrimage in history,” if things go as planned. According to this official of the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, who requested anonymity, “the number of pilgrims will exceed 2.5 million”.
“These are the happiest days of my life,” said Said Abdel Azim, a 65-year-old Egyptian pensioner who, like most men, wears the ihram, two layers of white cloth wrapping the body. This trip, which he says he saved for 20 years, is “a dream come true”, he says
One of the five pillars of Islam, the hajj must be performed at least once in the life of a practicing Muslim who can afford it.
It consists of a series of religious rites performed over several days in the holy city and its surroundings.
On Sunday evening, pilgrims are due to travel to Mina, about five kilometers from the Grand Mosque, where they will spend the night, before the main rite at Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his last sermon.
Mina, a city of white tents, is preparing to welcome pilgrims on Sunday, with the delivery of food and the deployment of security forces around the area.
PHOTO AMR NABIL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
View of tents in Mina
“Great Blessing”
Hosting the two major Muslim pilgrimages, the hajj and the Umrah (minor pilgrimage), lends prestige and legitimacy to Saudi rulers.
Many tragedies, including deadly stampedes, have marked the history of the hajj, but no major accident has been recorded since 2015.
“I can’t describe my feelings,” said Yusuf Burhan, a 25-year-old student from Indonesia.
“It’s a great blessing. I never imagined that I would do the hajj this year”.
With high temperatures — approaching 45 degrees Celsius — in one of the world’s hottest regions posing a growing challenge, authorities have set up numerous health centers and deployed 32,000 paramedics.
PHOTO SAJJAD HUSSAIN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A man cools off outside the Grand Mosque
Patrolling on foot, under white umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun, police doused the pilgrims with water.
Inside the Grand Mosque, thousands of rescue workers stand ready to intervene.
Crowded hotels
The hajj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, is an important source of income for the world’s biggest oil exporter, which is trying to diversify its economy.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, it brought in several billion dollars a year.
The authorities hope this year to approach the threshold of 2.5 million pilgrims reached in 2019, after welcoming 926,000 visitors in 2022.
In 2020 and 2021, at the height of the health crisis, only a few thousand people had been admitted.
According to Saudi businessman Samir Al-Zafni, all hotels in Makkah and its surroundings are fully booked until the first week of July.
“There is no longer a single empty bed in our chain of 67 hotels,” he told AFP.
The hajj is also an opportunity for the authorities to show social developments in the ultra-conservative kingdom, in the face of accusations of human rights violations.
In 2021, women were allowed to make the pilgrimage without being accompanied by a male guardian.
Ramot Ali, a woman from Niger, performs the hajj for the first time.
“I am very happy,” she said Friday as she left the Grand Mosque after evening prayers.