Ministry of Religious Affairs has completed the first phase of receiving applications under the 2026 government Hajj scheme, with more than 71,000 submissions, officials said on Saturday.The ministry ...

Mecca is Islam’s holiest city and a focal point for followers of the faith, but it's also home to about 2 million people who live everyday life there.

More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.

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 separate crane collapse at Mecca's Grand Mosque earlier the same year killed 111. The second-deadliest incident at the Hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.

MECCA, Saudi Arabia — Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca ahead of the start of the Hajj later this week, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its ...

South African travel operators raise alarrm over new Hajj directives from Saudi Arabia that could change the face of pilgrimages, putting personalised services at risk and alienating faithful ...

More than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world have already amassed in and around Mecca for the Hajj, and the number was still growing as more pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia joined.

The hajj pilgrimage, which once drew some 2.5 million Muslims from across the globe, is now almost unrecognizable. It is being scaled back for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, Saudi Arabia's Hajj Ministry has said between 1,000 and 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom will be allowed to perform the pilgrimage. Two-thirds of those pilgrims will be ...

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 ...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Muslim pilgrims have started arriving in Mecca for a drastically scaled-down hajj as Saudi authorities balance the importance of one of Islam’s key pillars with ...