Greater than 1.4 million Muslims have begun this 12 months’s Hajj pilgrimage within the Saudi holy metropolis of Mecca, a 12 months after 1,300 folks died, largely because of the excessive warmth.
Saudi authorities say they’ve stepped up security precautions for the annual occasion.
They’ve planted 1000’s of timber and put in lots of of cooling models to assist alleviate temperatures forecast to succeed in 44C (111F).
They’ve additionally banned kids underneath 12 and warned pilgrims trying to undertake the Hajj with out an official allow that they face a $5,000 (£3,685) effective and a 10-year entry ban.
As of Sunday, officers stated they’d stopped greater than 269,000 folks from getting into Mecca.
Officers stated 80% the pilgrims who died final 12 months, together with lots of of Egyptians and Indonesians, have been unregistered and due to this fact lacked entry to correct air-conditioned lodging, transport and different facilities when temperatures reached 51C.
Many Muslims can’t afford an official Hajj bundle – which might value from $4,000 to $20,000 relying on their nation of origin, size of keep and degree of consolation – and so enter the Gulf kingdom on vacationer or customer visas.
The Hajj is without doubt one of the 5 Pillars of Islam and takes place within the twelfth month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
It’s the journey that each grownup Muslim should undertake at the least as soon as of their lives if they will afford it and are bodily ready.
On the primary day of the Hajj, male pilgrims have been required to vary their garments for 2 white cloths and enter the state of Ihram. Ladies placed on modest clothes and coated their head, however not their face.
The pilgrims headed to Mecca’s Grand Mosque, Islam’s holiest web site, and circled the Kaaba 3 times – a ritual generally known as tawaf. They might additionally stroll seven occasions between the hills of Safa and Marwa, generally known as sai.
They then travelled to Mina, 5km (3 miles) away, the place they are going to spend the evening in a tent metropolis earlier than heading on Thursday to Mount Arafat, the place the Prophet Muhammad is claimed to have delivered his closing sermon.
The Saudi well being ministry urged the pilgrims to comply with strict tips to mitigate the results of the warmth, together with avoiding publicity to the solar between 10:00 and 16:00, utilizing umbrellas to shade themselves, and ingesting water repeatedly.
Shaded areas have been enlarged by 50,000 sq m (12 acres) and greater than 400 cooling models have been put in, in response to the Hajj minister.
The cooling system within the Grand Mosque is the biggest on this planet, in response to state TV.
Extra rubberized and cooled roads have additionally been constructed to scale back floor temperatures, and synthetic intelligence will probably be used to watch a fleet of drones and assist handle crowds.
In 2015, greater than 2,300 folks have been reportedly killed in a stampede in Mina.
