In Pictures

In Pictures: Hajj in Mecca during the COVID pandemic

The Hajj once drew some 2.5 million Muslims, but this year just 60,000 people are being allowed to perform it.

Muslim pilgrims circumambulate around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in the holy Saudi city of Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]

By News Agencies

Tens of thousands of vaccinated Muslim pilgrims circled Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Sunday but remained socially distanced and wore masks as the coronavirus takes its toll on the Hajj for a second year running.

Previously drawing some 2.5 million Muslims from all walks of life from across the globe, the Hajj pilgrimage is now almost unrecognisable in scale.

The pared-down Hajj of this year and last due to the COVID-19 pandemic not only affects the ability of people outside Saudi Arabia to fulfil the Islamic obligation but also the billions of dollars annually that Saudi Arabia draws from being the custodian of the holy sites.

The Islamic pilgrimage lasts about five days, but traditionally Muslims begin arriving in Mecca weeks ahead of time. The Hajj concludes with the Eid al-Adha celebration, marked by the distribution of meat to the poor around the world.

This year, 60,000 vaccinated citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia have been allowed to perform the Hajj due to continued concerns around the spread of the coronavirus. It’s a far greater figure than last year’s largely symbolic Hajj that saw fewer than 1,000 people from within the kingdom taking part.

The kingdom’s Al Saud rulers have staked their legitimacy in large part on their custodianship of Hajj sites, giving them a unique and powerful platform globally among Muslims. The kingdom has gone to great lengths to ensure the annual Hajj continues uninterrupted, despite changes caused by the pandemic.

Robots have been deployed to spray sanitising disinfectant around the cube-shaped Kaaba’s busiest walkways. It is here where the Hajj pilgrimage begins and ends for most.

Cleaners are sanitising the vast white marble spaces of the Grand Mosque that houses the Kaaba several times a day.

“We are sanitising the floor and using disinfection liquids while cleaning it two or three times during (each) shift,” said Olis Gul, a cleaner who said he has been working in Mecca for 20 years.

The Hajj is one of Islam’s most important requirements to be performed once in a lifetime. It follows a route the Prophet Muhammad walked nearly 1,400 years ago and is believed to ultimately trace the footsteps of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, or Abraham and Ishmael as they are named in the Bible.

The Hajj is seen as a chance to wipe clean past sins and bring about greater unity among Muslims. [AP Photo]

There are questions around whether the Hajj will be able to again draw such large numbers of faithful as in previous years, when male pilgrims formed a sea of white in white terrycloth garments worn to symbolise the equality of mankind before God. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]

A staff member delivers food portions to Muslim pilgrims at their camp in Mina. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]

Like last year, pilgrims will be drinking water from the holy Zamzam well in packaged plastic bottles. Pilgrims will also have to carry their own prayer rugs, were provided with umbrellas to shield them from the sun and must follow a strict schedule via a mobile app that informs them of when they can be in certain areas to avoid crowding. [Amr Nabil/AP Photo]

Pilgrims streamed out of the holy city of Mecca on Sunday, launching the rituals of the great pilgrimage which Saudi Arabia is holding in a scaled-down form for a second year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]

With no clear or agreed-upon standard for a vaccine passport, inoculation rates vastly uneven around the world and new variants of the virus threatening the progress already made in some nations, it’s unclear when Saudi Arabia will play host again to the millions of more Muslim pilgrims it planned to receive in years to come. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]

The pilgrimage to Mecca, required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it, used to draw more than two million people. But for a second straight year, it has been curtailed due to the coronavirus with only vaccinated people in Saudi Arabia able to participate. [Amr Nabil/AP Photo]

SAUDI-HAJJ-HEALTH-VIRUS — A picture shows pilgrim tents in Mina, which sits in a narrow valley surrounded by rocky mountains near the Saudi holy city of Mecca and is transformed each year into a vast encampment for Hajj pilgrims. [Fayez Nureldine/AFP]