Maize, Saudi ArabWhite-robed worshipers from around the world pack the streets of Mecca as Islam’s holiest city prepares for the biggest event Haj journey Since the coronavirus pandemic.
Banners welcoming the faithful, including the first international visitors since 2019, strewn squares and streets, while armed security forces patrol the ancient city, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.
“It is an absolute delight,” Sudanese pilgrim Abdel Kader Kheder told AFP in Mecca ahead of the event starting on Wednesday. “I almost can’t believe I’m here. I’m enjoying every moment.”
One million people, including 850,000 from abroad, are allowed on this year’s Hajj – a key pillar of Islam that requires all able-bodied Muslims to perform at least once – after a massive two-year cut due to the pandemic. .
Officials said on Sunday that at least 650,000 foreign pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia so far.
In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part in rituals, which include circumambulating the Kaaba, placing the black cube at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, gathering at Mount Arafat, and “stoning the devil” in Mina.
The following year, foreigners were banned and worshipers were limited to just 10,000, with 60,000 fully vaccinated Saudi citizens and residents in 2021, preventing the Hajj from turning into a global super-spreader. For.
One million pilgrims under the age of 65 will attend the Hajj under strict sanitary conditions, with the Grand Mosque, the holiest site in Islam, cleaned and disinfected 10 times a day.
According to the official toll, the rituals have seen several disasters, including a 2015 stampede that killed 2,300 people and a 1979 attack by hundreds of gunmen, which killed 153.
The pilgrimage, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is a powerful source of prestige for the Orthodox desert kingdom and its de facto ruler, the Crown. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the diplomat returning from the jungle.
Prince Mohammed to welcome US President a few days after Hajj Joe Biden With oil prices soaring from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has reneged on a promise to turn Saudi Arabia into a “fairy” over the 2018 killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents
The Hajj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, is a money-spinner for the world’s largest oil exporter, bringing in about $12 billion annually, along with other religious pilgrimages.
It is also a chance to showcase a country that is undergoing rapid change, while still receiving regular complaints about human rights abuses and limits on individual liberty.
Saudi Arabia – which has allowed waves in mixed-gender beaches in Riyadh and Jeddah as part of recent reforms – still allows women to attend the Hajj with a male relative, a requirement it removed last year went.
Masks are no longer mandatory in most enclosed spaces in Saudi Arabia, but they will be mandatory in the Grand Mosque. Pilgrims coming from abroad will have to submit a negative PCR test result.
Officials said the Grand Mosque would be washed “10 times a day … by more than 4,000 male and female workers”, each time using more than 130,000 liters (34,000 gallons) of disinfectant.
Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 795,000 coronavirus cases in a population of about 34 million, of which 9,000 are fatal.
Besides COVID, another challenge is the scorching sun in one of the world’s hottest and driest regions, which is becoming even more extreme with the effects of climate change.
Although summer has just begun, temperatures have already risen above 50 °C (122 Fahrenheit) in some parts of Saudi Arabia.
But for Iraqi pilgrim Ahmed Abdul-Hasan al-Fatalawi, hot weather is the last thing he thinks of when in Mecca.
“I’m 60, so it’s normal if I’m physically exhausted because of the hot weather, but I’m in a state of calm, and that’s what matters to me,” he told AFP.
Banners welcoming the faithful, including the first international visitors since 2019, strewn squares and streets, while armed security forces patrol the ancient city, the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad.
“It is an absolute delight,” Sudanese pilgrim Abdel Kader Kheder told AFP in Mecca ahead of the event starting on Wednesday. “I almost can’t believe I’m here. I’m enjoying every moment.”
One million people, including 850,000 from abroad, are allowed on this year’s Hajj – a key pillar of Islam that requires all able-bodied Muslims to perform at least once – after a massive two-year cut due to the pandemic. .
Officials said on Sunday that at least 650,000 foreign pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia so far.
In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part in rituals, which include circumambulating the Kaaba, placing the black cube at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, gathering at Mount Arafat, and “stoning the devil” in Mina.
The following year, foreigners were banned and worshipers were limited to just 10,000, with 60,000 fully vaccinated Saudi citizens and residents in 2021, preventing the Hajj from turning into a global super-spreader. For.
One million pilgrims under the age of 65 will attend the Hajj under strict sanitary conditions, with the Grand Mosque, the holiest site in Islam, cleaned and disinfected 10 times a day.
According to the official toll, the rituals have seen several disasters, including a 2015 stampede that killed 2,300 people and a 1979 attack by hundreds of gunmen, which killed 153.
The pilgrimage, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is a powerful source of prestige for the Orthodox desert kingdom and its de facto ruler, the Crown. Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the diplomat returning from the jungle.
Prince Mohammed to welcome US President a few days after Hajj Joe Biden With oil prices soaring from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has reneged on a promise to turn Saudi Arabia into a “fairy” over the 2018 killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents
The Hajj, which costs at least $5,000 per person, is a money-spinner for the world’s largest oil exporter, bringing in about $12 billion annually, along with other religious pilgrimages.
It is also a chance to showcase a country that is undergoing rapid change, while still receiving regular complaints about human rights abuses and limits on individual liberty.
Saudi Arabia – which has allowed waves in mixed-gender beaches in Riyadh and Jeddah as part of recent reforms – still allows women to attend the Hajj with a male relative, a requirement it removed last year went.
Masks are no longer mandatory in most enclosed spaces in Saudi Arabia, but they will be mandatory in the Grand Mosque. Pilgrims coming from abroad will have to submit a negative PCR test result.
Officials said the Grand Mosque would be washed “10 times a day … by more than 4,000 male and female workers”, each time using more than 130,000 liters (34,000 gallons) of disinfectant.
Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has recorded more than 795,000 coronavirus cases in a population of about 34 million, of which 9,000 are fatal.
Besides COVID, another challenge is the scorching sun in one of the world’s hottest and driest regions, which is becoming even more extreme with the effects of climate change.
Although summer has just begun, temperatures have already risen above 50 °C (122 Fahrenheit) in some parts of Saudi Arabia.
But for Iraqi pilgrim Ahmed Abdul-Hasan al-Fatalawi, hot weather is the last thing he thinks of when in Mecca.
“I’m 60, so it’s normal if I’m physically exhausted because of the hot weather, but I’m in a state of calm, and that’s what matters to me,” he told AFP.