MECCA, Saudi Arabia – To avoid the punishing sun, Ms Inas Gamal abandoned her ambitious plan of spending the days ahead of the haj praying in Mecca’s Grand Mosque and retreated to the comfort of an air-conditioned hotel room to perform her daytime prayers.
Despite travelling all the way from Egypt for the annual pilgrimage, Ms Gamal said it was just too hot to spend much time outside during the day, where temperatures crossed 40 deg C.
“It’s very hot, much hotter than I imagined,” the mother of four, who is performing the haj for the first time, told AFP.
“I can’t adapt,” she added while adjusting her sunglasses to protect her eyes from the harsh glare of the sun.
“I had planned to perform all my prayers at the Grand Mosque, but I couldn’t go down for the prayers held during the day.”
Pilgrims perform most of the haj’s rites outdoors where more than a million devotees gather in stifling conditions, with many attendees succumbing to heatstroke, fainting spells and even cardiac arrest triggered by the heat.
Saudi Arabia’s National Center for Meteorology predicted daytime temperatures this week would hover between 42 and 47 deg C in Mecca during the haj, which officially begins on May 25.
For pilgrims travelling from outside the region, the harsh desert climate can be brutal.
“I make sure to drink large amounts of water and beverages rich in salts and minerals, because we sweat constantly and are always on the move,” said Mr Imad Ahmed, visiting from Britain.
To protect worshippers from the extreme heat, authorities rely on one of the most powerful air conditioning systems in the world to cool the Grand Mosque’s courtyards, according to Saudi state television.
Other areas have huge fans, mist sprayers and cooled flooring systems to mitigate the searing heat.
Trucks are also continuously distributing free bottles of ice-cold water to pilgrims.
But even with these measures, the unrelenting sun continues to bake the white marble surrounding the grounds of the Grand Mosque where most pilgrims have congregated in recent days.
“It’s really hot,” said 43-year-old Mohamed Nabil, who hails from the Algerian coastal city of Oran, where temperatures are currently around 25 deg C.
The professor said he regularly pours water on his face to stay cool, while racking up 30,000 steps a day as he explores Mecca.
Ice cream stands are often mobbed by pilgrims, while others seek shelter in the shade of buildings near the mosque or in indoor galleries, where they lie on carpets beneath enormous fans while waiting to perform their prayers.
When the haj begins, pilgrims will be forced to beat the heat for many of the rites, including the pilgrimage’s climax at Mount Arafat on May 26 where there is little, if any, shade to be found on the rocky hill.
More than 50,000 healthcare staff and 3,000 ambulances are on hand to help pilgrims in need, the Saudi health ministry said.
On May 23, the ministry said its medical teams had already treated 144 people suffering from heatstroke.
In 2024, more than 1,300 pilgrims died as temperatures crossed 50 deg C, according to authorities.
Speaking from a hospital room in the Mina camp, where authorities treat pilgrims for heat exhaustion, the health ministry’s Jameel Abualenain said he was mainly concerned “about rising temperatures” affecting pilgrims.
To protect against heatstroke, he said people must “drink enough water, use umbrellas and avoid prolonged exposure to the sun”. AFP
