Haj parasols fitted with solar-power fans

Pilgrims completing the haj in Mecca can use modern technology to keep cool with a solar-powered parasol that charges a fan and a mobile phone.

The kafya [sufficient] sunshade transforms sunlight into energy to power a personal fan, three USB points, a battery pack, torch and GPS system.

It is the brainchild of Kamel Badawi, a Saudi entrepreneur born and raised in the kingdom’s holy city of Mecca, home to the week-long Muslim pilgrimage.

Badawi devised the parasol after spending years volunteering at the haj. He developed it with Manal Dandis, a Palestinian scien- tist. They unveiled a prototype before this year’s pilgrimage, which starts on September 9.

‘‘The haj now takes places in summer when it is extremely hot,’’ Badawi told The Times. ‘‘So many pilgrims use umbrellas, why not adapt them to make the overall experience more pleasant?’’

More than two million people from across the world descend on the ancient city each year in the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam.

Temperatures can reach more than 45C and last year thousands were treated for heat stroke and exhaustion.

For the next decade the festival will fall within the hottest summer months, a Saudi government study reported last week. The Saudi Arabian ministry of health has begun an awareness campaign and installed fans that also spray a fine mist in air-conditioned tents.

The hi-tech umbrella has a fan and power pack that can be charged through 16 solar panels on its canopy or via a normal power outlet. The cane of the umbrella doubles up as a flashlight. The GPS system, which comes with its own mobile phone app, allows pilgrims to locate each other in an emergency.

Badawi said he hoped to sell the parasols for about £40 (NZ$72) each. Pilgrims are increasingly turning to technology to ease their travails. Video emerged last year of a worshipper circling the sacred Kaaba stone on a hoverboard. Hoaxers are exploiting the growing black market in Middle Eastern antiquities by creating fake artefacts to dupe unsuspecting collectors, according to Syria’s antiquities director.

Fake ancient Bibles, Korans, mosaic tableaux and medieval coins are among the counterfeit items seized by police from smugglers in Damascus.

Thousands of ancient artefacts have been looted by all sides in Syria’s five-year-conflict, including Islamic State, which has raised millions from their sale. Most are smuggled into Lebanon and Turkey, bound for the black market as far away as America.

Maamoun Abdulkarim, director general of antiquities and museum in Syria, said the proportion of fakes among looted antiquities seized in Syria and Lebanon had risen from 30 per cent to 70 per cent in the past three years.

‘‘I hope the originals are stopped and the fakes go to the market place,’’ he told The Art Newspaper before his appearance yesterday (Thursday) at the Edinburgh International Cultural Festival. Abdulkarim also called for more help from British museums and scientists in saving Syria’s cultural legacy. In a separate interview he expressed gratitude for the support of universities in London, but added: ‘‘We need help from Scotland, from [elsewhere in] the UK, from France and Germany.

‘‘We need the visit of scientists, to exchange with us scientific ideas, from Scotland’s laboratories and museums, from UK, from Italy – sometimes they cannot come to Damascus, but perhaps we can meet in Beirut.’’

This year an ancient stone lintel illegally removed from Syria was discovered at an antique store in Mayfair by academics posing as collectors. It was seized by police.

Syria has requested its return but it currently remains in Britain. Lebanon is the only country that has yet returned seized antiquities to Syria.