Muslim pilgrims crowd Saudi Arabia's Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, during the climax of the Hajj pilgrimage on Tuesday. The ritual is the high point of the annual pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, that officials say could be the biggest on record after three years of Covid restrictions — AFP MOUNT ARAFAT, June 27 (AFP): Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims prayed at Mount Arafat in searing heat on Tuesday at the height of an annual hajj pilgrimage held in the fierce Saudi Arabian summer.
Worshippers crowded the rocky rise and surrounding area from before dawn and when the sun appeared, it revealed vast numbers of white-robed worshippers thronging the sacred site.
This year’s annual hajj pilgrimage has drawn more than 1.8 million worshippers, Saudi Arabia’s statistics authority said Tuesday, a long way short of a record despite predictions of peak attendance.
The kingdom’s officials had predicted this year’s rituals, one of the world’s largest religious gatherings, would draw more than 2.5 million pilgrims, making it the largest to date.
But official figures carried by the state-run Al Ekhbariya TV showed they were still short of the 2.5 million worshippers who took part in 2019.
“The total number of pilgrims for this hajj season... is 1,845,045 male and female pilgrims,” the Saudi statistics authority said, according to Al Ekhbariya.
This year’s figures still mark a dramatic increase on the 926,000 from last year, when numbers were capped at one million following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Only 10,000 were allowed in 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, rising to nearly 59,000 a year later.
The ritual is the high point of the annual pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam.
High temperatures have been a constant challenge for the pilgrims, who come from around the world, and the mercury hit 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) before midday on the hajj’s most physically demanding day.
The hajj has a tragic history of deadly stampedes and fires and as the pilgrims prayed and recited from the Koran, helicopters hovered low overhead, monitoring the crowds.
Tree-shaped water towers sprayed cooling showers on the visitors, and free water bottles and snacks were handed out from large trucks.
Six field hospitals with more than 300 beds have been arranged in Arafat, Yasser Bair, a Saudi defence ministry official, told the state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV.
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