Tens of thousands of Muslims streamed out of Islam’s holiest city yesterday after completing the annual Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, an AFP correspondent said.
This year more than 1.8mn worshippers performed the Haj.
Yesterday, two days after the last major ritual, tens of thousands of people packed roads and boarded buses out of Islam’s holiest sites in Makkah, bringing the Haj to a close, the AFP correspondent said.
They departed after performing a farewell “tawaf.”
“I am very happy that I finished the pilgrimage safely,” said Mohamed al-Bashir, a 47-year-old Tunisian driver who was performing his last prayers yesterday.
This year’s main challenge came from the extreme temperatures.
More than 2,000 people have suffered heat stress this year, according to Saudi authorities, after temperatures soared to 48 degrees Celsius during the annual rites. This year’s attendance figures marked a dramatic increase on the 926,000 from last year, when numbers were capped at 1mn following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Only 10,000 were allowed in 2020, rising to nearly 59,000 a year later.
In recent years the Haj, which follows the lunar calendar, has fallen in the Saudi summer, at a time when global warming is making the desert climate even hotter.
The Haj is a major revenue-earner for Saudi Arabia, which is trying to pivot its oil-reliant economy in new directions including tourism. The kingdom makes an estimated $12bn a year from the Haj and year-round Umrah pilgrimages.
Pilgrims pray during the last ‘tawaf’ of the annual Haj pilgrimage, in the holy city of Makkah, Saudi Arabia, yesterday.
