Huge crowds of robed Muslim pilgrims prayed on Saudi Arabia’s Mount Arafat on Friday, the climax of the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the pandemic forced drastic cuts in numbers for two years.
MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia-
Prayers on Mount Arafat are the highlight of the annual pilgrimage, capped this year at one million people including 850,000 from abroad. They will sleep under the stars in nearby Muzdalifah before performing the symbolic “stoning of the devil” ceremony on Saturday. In 2019, as in previous years, some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world took part, a figure that dropped to a few thousand in 2020 and 60,000 in 2021.
The remaining pilgrims descended Mount Arafat as they recited their last prayers, some breaking into tears, while worshippers thronged nearby streets. On Friday, the temperature hit 44 degrees Celsius at Mount Arafat, state-run Al-Ekhbariya television reported.
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