Massive crowds of robed Muslims gathered for the “stoning of the devil” ritual in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the pandemic draws to a close.
From dawn, hundreds of thousands of worshippers began pelting pebbles at three concrete monoliths representing Satan, the last major ritual of an event held in severe summer heat.
The pilgrims flocked to Mina, near Mecca, a day after enduring temperatures of 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) as they prayed for hours on Mount Arafat.
“I will not think of doing hajj again until it takes place in winter,” Farah, a 26-year-old Tunisian, said of the annual ritual which follows the lunar calendar and doesn’t always coincide with summer.
“My body is melting,” she said.
More than 1.8 million pilgrims, most of them from abroad, joined the first hajj with unrestricted numbers since pre-Covid in 2019, when 2.5 million took part.
The attendance figure, announced by Saudi officials on Tuesday, falls well short of their predictions of beating the 2019 record.বিস্তারিত