More than 1.5 million foreign Muslims arrive in Mecca for annual Hajj pilgrimage

By SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press

MECCA, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca for the Hajj, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale. Saudi officials say more than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims have arrived in Mecca so far. More are expected, and hundreds of thousands of Saudis and others living in Saudi Arabia will also join them when the pilgrimage officially begins on Friday. Saudi officials expect the number to exceed the participants in 2023, when more than 1.8 million people performed Hajj. The numbers are nearing the totals before the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, more than 2.4 million Muslims made the pilgrimage.