Haj pilgrims gather in maize under Desert Sun
Mecca: More than a million Muslim pilgrims put ahead of the annual Haj in the holy city of Mecca, the authorities vowed to organize a safe pilgrimage amid a large scale rift on the desert heat and illegal visitors.Authorities have provoked heat mitigation measures to avoid repeating last year’s Hajj, which saw 1,301 pilgrims die as the temperature reached 51.8 ° C (125.2 Fahrenheit).This week the temperature was estimated to exceed 40 degrees Celsius as one of the world’s largest annual religious meetings begins on Wednesday.Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, should be performed at least once by all Muslims.According to officials, by Friday, more than 1.3 million pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia for a multi-day pilgrimage.This year, the authorities have mobilized more than 40 government agencies and 250,000 officers, doubling their efforts against heat -related disease after the 2024 deadly heatwave.The shaded areas are expanded by 50,000 square meters (12 acres), thousands of more medics will be on standby, and more than 400 cooling units will be deployed, Saudi Arabia’s Haj Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah told the AFP last week.On Monday, with 40 ° C topping in temperature, the Ministry of Health said that 44 cases of heatstroke were already treated.The latest artificial intelligence technology will also help in monitoring the flooding of data and footage, including videos from a new fleet of drones, which is better to better manage mammoth congestion.Despite the punishment heat, the pilgrims were very happy to reach Mecca.
Very, very, very hot:
“This is actually a blessing from Allah,” Abdul Majid Atti, a Philippino lawyer and Sharia Counselor, told AFP near the Grand Mosque.“We feel very peaceful and safe in this place.”Abdulmid of Nigeria said that he was “very happy”, who was doing his second pilgrimage in a row only at the age of 27.But the young man said that he never moves without his sunglasses, describes the temperature in maize as “very, very, very hot”.Rites in the holy city and its surroundings, which follow a lunar calendar, come again during the warm month of June this year.Last year, most of the deaths were one of the unregistered pilgrims who lacked air -conditioned tents and access to buses.Fahd Saeed of a think tank climate analytics, a think tank in Germany, said, “He was surprised because the heat intensity was so high that their adaptation measures failed.”In the run-up of this year’s Hajj, Saudi authorities launched a broader crack on unregistered worshipers, using a barrage of frequent raids, drone monitoring and text alerts.
Arrest and exile:
The Haj permit is allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals by lottery.But even for those who can achieve them, the steep costs motivate many people to try Haj without permits – although they risk arrest and exile when caught.With heavy fines, those people faced a possible 10 -year ban from Saudi Arabia during the Hajj, illegally entering Mecca.The large crowd in Haj has proved to be dangerous in the past, recently in 2015 when a stampede during the “Stoning the Devil” ritual in Meena near Mecca, 2,300 people died in the most deadly Haj disaster.Saudi Arabia, which is home to the holiest sanctuaries of Islam in Mecca and Medina, earns billions of dollars from Haj every year and is known as Umrah, which is done in other times of the year.Pilgrims are also a source of reputation for the Saudi emperor, known as the patron of two sacred mosques of Mecca and Medina.For 52 -year -old pilgrims Mariama from Senegal, a journey from Mecca has fulfilled a lifetime dream.“I was dreaming about it, thinking about it every time to come here to do Haj,” she said.
