The annual Hajj pilgrimage, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, officially began on Monday.
More than 1.5 million pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia from outside the country, Saleh bin Saad Al-Murabba, commander of the Hajj passport forces, said on Friday.
The faithful have been pouring into the country for the Hajj against a backdrop of a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war and related regional tensions and uncertainty.
Egyptian pilgrim Samya Abdul Moneim said she was grateful to God that she made it to the Hajj, which is required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it.
“I am in a state of blessing and happiness,” she said in Mecca on Sunday. “It’s an indescribable feeling, truly. I mean, thank God, I am in a blessing.”
Typically on the first day, many pilgrims in Mecca converge on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert.
Before that, pilgrims have been circling the cube-shaped Kaaba in the Grand Mosque in sweltering temperatures.
For pilgrims, Hajj can be a deeply moving spiritual experience and a chance to seek God’s forgiveness and the erasure of past sins. Pilgrims perform the Hajj rituals over several days.
This Hajj “is, in effect, a hard reset for me”, Youssef Chouhoud, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, US, said on Monday from the tent city of Mina.
“I pray that I emerge on the other side of this journey with a new sense of purpose and the discipline to see it through.”
Around him, many pilgrims were resting and refuelling, he said via WhatsApp, noting how demanding the pilgrimage is.
“It is for many pilgrims the most difficult thing they will ever do in their lives,” he said. “But nothing this meaningful is ever going to be easy.”
He found it inspiring “to see so many who have sacrificed so much to be here … only to compete with one another in giving charity and helping each other along the way,” he said.
As they brave the intense heat to perform religious rituals, many pilgrims have been using umbrellas for shade and carrying handheld fans.
Volunteers hand out water bottles to help them stay hydrated and fans spray fine mists of water.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump said a deal with Iran on the war, including opening the Strait of Hormuz, has been “largely negotiated” after calls with Israel and other allies in the region.
On Tuesday, in what is considered the pinnacle of the pilgrimage, the pilgrims will stand on the plain of Arafat, where they praise God, plead for forgiveness and make supplications.
Many carry prayer requests from loved ones and raise their hands in worship with tears streaming down their faces.