Enormous crowds of worshippers thronged Mecca, Islam's holiest city, on Friday for the biggest hajj 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 hajj -- one of the world's biggest annual religious gatherings, with a tragic history of stampedes and other disasters -- could break attendance records, officials said.
"As the hajj draws near, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia prepares... for the largest Islamic gathering in history," Minister of Hajj 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 Mecca'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, Rabiah said -- a dramatic increase on the 926,000 from last year, when numbers were capped at one million post-pandemic.
In 2019, about 2.5 million people took part. Only 10,000 were allowed in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising to nearly 59,000 a year later.
The hajj is among the five pillars of Islam and must be undertaken by all Muslims with the means at least once in their lives.
- 'Unbelievable feeling' -
Travellers from around the world have been pouring into Jeddah's modernised airport, some of them using streamlined visa services to disembark from planes straight onto buses to their accommodation.
Some 24,000 buses will be in service to ferry the pilgrims, as well as 17 trains capable of moving 72,000 people every hour, officials said.
"It is an unbelievable feeling that is very emotional," Souad bin Oueis, a 60-year-old Moroccan pilgrim, told AFP after arriving on her first visit to Saudi Arabia along with her husband.
This hajj will be the biggest since the requirement for women to be accompanied by male guardians was dropped in 2021.
This year, the maximum age limit has also been scrapped, meaning thousands of elderly will be among those contending with Saudi summer temperatures that are expected to reach 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit).
The hajj rituals begin late Sunday at the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The worshippers will sleep in tents on Monday night and spend Tuesday at Mount Arafat, the climax of the hajj, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have delivered his final sermon.
After casting pebbles in the "stoning of the devil" ritual on Wednesday, marking the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, pilgrims return to Mecca to perform a farewell "tawaf" -- circling seven times around the Kaaba.
- Heat risks -
Mecca pilgrimages are a major source of income for Saudi Arabia, which is embarking on an ambitious plan to overhaul its largely oil-dependent economy. The hajj and year-round umrah rituals generate an estimated $12 billion annually.
An expansion project that involves scaling up infrastructure and transport supporting Mecca and Medina, where two of Islam's holiest sites are located, is a key part of the economic plan as the kingdom looks to increase visitor numbers.
This year's summer timing for the hajj, which follows the lunar calendar, will test the endurance of worshippers during the four-day, mostly outdoor ritual.
More than 32,000 health workers will be on hand to help fend off heatstroke, dehydration and exhaustion.
But severe weather is just one of the risks at an event that has been hit by deadly incidents from stampedes to militant attacks.
Just eight years ago in 2015, as many as 2,300 worshippers died in a stampede during the "stoning of the devil" ritual in Mina near Mecca, the worst hajj disaster ever.
More than 700 people died in a notorious attack in 1979, when hundreds of gunmen demanding the abdication of the Saudi royal family barricaded themselves inside the Grand Mosque, taking dozens of pilgrims hostage.
Ahead of the hajj, security forces held a military parade in Mecca, including soldiers in full camouflage holding automatic weapons.
Umer Karim, a doctoral researcher focusing on Saudi foreign policy at Britain's University of Birmingham, said hosting the hajj is a matter of prestige and a source of political legitimacy for Saudi rulers, the custodians of the holy sites.
The pilgrimage "gives the kingdom and its rulers a huge amount of esteem and prestige which then becomes a major source of the kingdom's soft power".
The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam
The annual hajj pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam, will start on Sunday with more than two million Muslims from around the world expected to take part this year.
It will be the largest pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic forced Saudi authorities to dramatically downsize the event.
More than 926,000 people took part in 2022, up from nearly 59,000 the previous year, according to official figures. In 2019, the Hajj drew in around 2.5 million pilgrims.
With Covid-19 restrictions completely lifted and age limits scrapped, the kingdom expects to return to pre-pandemic levels of more than two million.
All Muslims are expected to complete the hajj to Mecca -- from which non-Muslims are strictly banned -- at least once in their lives if they have the means to do so.
Believers converge on the holy city for several days of rituals in which they retrace the Prophet Mohammed's last pilgrimage.
Here is a rundown of the ceremonies at what is usually one of the largest religious gatherings in the world.
- White garments -
Pilgrims must first enter a state of purity, called ihram, which requires special dress and behaviour.
Men wear a seamless shroud-like white garment that emphasises unity among believers regardless of their social status or nationality.
Women must wear loose dresses, also white, exposing only their faces and hands.
Pilgrims are not allowed to argue or bicker and are prohibited from wearing perfume, cutting their nails, or trimming their hair or beards.
- Rituals begin -
The first ritual requires walking seven times around the Kaaba, the large black cubic structure at the centre of Mecca's Grand Mosque.
Made from granite and draped in an heavily-embroidered cloth featuring verses of the Koran, the Kaaba stands nearly 15 metres (50 feet) tall.
Muslims, no matter where they are in the world, turn towards the Kaaba to pray. The structure is said to have been first erected by Adam and then rebuilt by Abraham 4,000 years ago.
Pilgrims next walk seven times between two stone spots in the mosque.
They then move on to Mina, around five kilometres (three miles) away, ahead of the main rite of the pilgrimage at Mount Arafat.
- Mount Arafat -
The climax of the hajj is the gathering on Mount Arafat, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Mina, where it is believed that the Prophet Mohammed delivered his final sermon.
Pilgrims assemble on the 70-metre (230-foot) high hill and its surrounding plain for hours of prayers and Koran recitals, staying there until the evening.
After sunset they head to Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and Mina, where they each gather several dozen pebbles so they can perform the symbolic "stoning of the devil".
- 'Stoning the devil' -
The last major ritual of the hajj is back at Mina, where pilgrims throw seven stones at each of three huge concrete walls representing Satan.
The ritual is an emulation of Abraham's stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade him from obeying God's order to sacrifice his son, Ishmael.
After the first stoning, the Eid al-Adha feast of sacrifice begins, marking the end of the hajj.
Sheep are slaughtered, in reference to the lamb that God provided for sacrifice instead of Ishmael, in a ceremony that is held at the same time around the world.
Men then shave their heads or trim their hair while women cut a fingertip-length off their locks.
The pilgrims can then change back into normal clothing, returning to circumambulate the Kaaba and complete their stone-throwing rituals before heading home.
- Four other pillars -
The hajj is the last pillar of Islam.
The other four are: profession of the faith, daily prayers, alms-giving and fasting from dawn to dusk during the holy month of Ramadan.
Hajj disasters: Stampedes, infernos and a bloody siege
It is Islam's holiest pilgrimage, but the hajj to Mecca in Saudi Arabia has in recent decades been plagued by deadly disasters, from stampedes to militant attacks.
Yet the last time the pilgrimage was cancelled outright was in 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt.
The coronavirus pandemic did, however, force the kingdom to radically downscale the 2020 event to just a few thousand people, a far cry from the 2.5 million believers who took part in 2019.
The numbers were scaled back up to 926,000 in 2022, but this year the kingdom is gearing up to host more than two million Muslims from around the world for the rituals that start on Sunday.
Here are some recent incidents that have marred the centuries-old pilgrimage:
- Stampedes -
2015 - A stampede during the "stoning of the devil" ritual in Mina, near Mecca, kills up to 2,300 worshippers on September 24 in the worst hajj disaster ever.
That comes after more than 100 people are killed and hundreds injured, including many foreigners, when stormy weather topples a crane onto Mecca's Grand Mosque less than two weeks before the pilgrimage.
2006 - Some 364 pilgrims die in a stampede on January 12 during the Mina stoning ritual, in which hajj participants throw pebbles at three headstones to symbolise their rejection of Satan.
This follows a hotel collapse a week earlier in the city centre, which kills 76 people.
The previous year, three pilgrims are crushed to death in a stampede on January 22 at the stoning ceremony.
2004 - 251 people die after a huge stampede at the stoning ceremony on February 1.
1998 - More than 118 people are killed and 180 injured in a stampede in Mina on April 9.
1994 - During the Mina stoning on May 24, a stampede kills 270 people, with authorities blaming "record numbers" of pilgrims.
1990 - The failure of a tunnel ventilation system triggers a huge stampede on July 2 that kills 1,426 pilgrims, mainly from Asia.
- Attacks -
1989 - A twin attack on the outside of the Grand Mosque on July 10 kills one and wounds 16. Weeks later, 16 Kuwaiti Shiites are found guilty and executed.
1979 - Hundreds of gunmen calling for the abdication of the Saudi royal family barricade themselves inside Mecca's Grand Mosque on November 20, taking dozens of pilgrims hostage. The official toll of the assault and subsequent fighting is 153 dead and 560 wounded.
- Protests -
1987 - Saudi security forces suppress an unauthorised protest by Iranian pilgrims on July 31 in which more than 400 people including 275 Iranians are killed, according to an official toll.
- Infernos -
1997 - A fire on April 15 caused by a gas stove rips through a camp housing pilgrims at Mina, killing 343 and injuring around 1,500.
1995 - Three people die and 99 are injured on May 7 in a fire at the Mina camp.
1975 - A huge fire on December 14 started by an exploding gas canister in a pilgrim camp close to Mecca kills 200 people.
(With AFP inputs)