Pilgrims flock to Mount Arafat in high point of pandemic-era haj
MECCA, Saudi Arabia: Muslim pilgrims ascended Saudi Arabia’s Mount Arafat on Monday in the high point of this year’s haj, being held in downsized form and under coronavirus restrictions for the second year running.
Just 60,000 people, all citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia, have been selected to take part in this year’s haj, with foreign pilgrims again barred.
The mask-clad faithful, who had spent the night in camps in the Valley of Mina, converged on Mount Arafat for the most important of the haj rituals.
Worshippers will assemble on the 70-metre high hill and its surrounding plain for hours of prayers and Koran recitals to atone for their sins, staying there until the evening.
After sunset they head to Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and Mina, where they will sleep under the stars before performing the symbolic “stoning of the devil”.
The scene was dramatically different to past pilgrimages, which have drawn up to 2.5 million people, and this year the mountain was free of the huge crowds that descend on it in normal years.
Authorities are seeking to repeat last year’s successful event which took place on the smallest scale in modern history with just 10,000 participants, but which saw no virus outbreak.
Saudi health authorities said Sunday that not a single Covid case had been reported amongst the pilgrims this year.
The kingdom has so far recorded more than 509,000 coronavirus infections, including over 8,000 deaths. Some 20 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country of over 34 million people.
The haj, which typically packs large crowds into congested religious sites, could have been a super-spreader event for the virus. But Saudi Arabia has said it is deploying the “highest levels of health precautions” in light of the pandemic and the emergence of new variants.