Mapping Hajj

Our journey starts at the Kaaba, the cube-shaped "House of Allah" in the heart of Makkah’s Grand Mosque. Although the required rituals of Hajj begin in Mina, many pilgrims first head to the Kaaba to perform Tawaf upon their arrival in the Holy City. For this iconic ritual, they circle the Kaaba seven times in a counterclockwise direction. As a symbol of the sacralized state (Ihram), men wear simple white garments, while women dress modestly, covering their hair and body. Moving around the Kaaba, they embody humility and the equality of all before Allah.

Tawaf, the circling of the Kaaba, dates back to the time of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and symbolizes keeping Allah at the center of one’s life. The ritual begins and ends at the corner with the Black Stone, which pilgrims honor by kissing it, touching it, or raising a hand toward it in a gesture known as Istilam. Pilgrims perform the ritual of Tawaf several times during Hajj. They will return here after visiting Mina, Arafat, and Muzdalifah.

After completing Tawaf, pilgrims perform Sa’i, walking seven times between the nearby hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah. Al-Safa and Al-Marwah used to be on open ground at the edge of the Grand Mosque, with people walking between them through the city landscape. As the mosque expanded over the centuries, the builders enclosed the walking route and folded it into the mosque complex. Today, pilgrims perform Sa’i in a long, purpose-built passage rather than outdoors.

The ritual recalls Hagar’s search for water for her son Ismail (Ishmael) after her husband Ibrahim left them in the desert at Allah’s command. When she turned to heaven for help, Allah revealed the well of Zamzam, which still flows today. Sa’i embodies endurance, faith, and the belief that help arrives when hope seems lost.

The next stop is Mina, a valley about five kilometers east of Makkah that turns into a vast camp during the pilgrimage. Known as the "City of Tents", it spans 2.5 million square meters and can house more than two million people.

Rows of identical white tents erase social divides: everyone eats, prays, and sleeps in similar simple conditions. Each unit connects to centralized cooling, essential in a valley where summer temperatures regularly rise above 40°C. Paved corridors run between camps. Lighting, signage, fire suppression systems, and utilities are built in. The layout operates with the logic of a planned city.

By nightfall, the valley hums with quiet recitation and rest, following the Prophet Muhammad’s example, who began his pilgrimage here on the eighth day of Dhu al-Hijjah. For the next 5 days, the valley will become the pilgrims' point of return, rest, and spiritual contemplation.

Next comes Arafat, a wide plain about 15 kilometers east of Mina, the most important stage of the pilgrimage. Unlike Mina, the landscape here is mostly open ground with limited permanent structures.

From noon to sunset, millions of pilgrims stand or sit together in prayer, asking Allah for forgiveness. The stillness of the plain contrasts with the vastness of the crowd, creating a powerful sense of unity and humility. Arafat is the spiritual heart of Hajj. The Prophet Muhammad considered standing here crucial to pilgrims, as it could free them from the Hellfire. Muslims around the world mark the same day with fasting and prayer.

After sunset, pilgrims leave Arafat and travel to Muzdalifah, an open plain about halfway back to Mina. They spend the night under the stars, with no tents or shelters, resting briefly on mats or sheets laid on the ground. The evening is devoted to prayer and reflection. Here, pilgrims also gather small pebbles from the earth for the next rituals in Mina.

The stillness of Muzdalifah invites humility. Lying beneath the sky with only the ground for a bed reminds each pilgrim of life’s simplicity and its short span before resurrection. At dawn, the crowd rises together and sets out once more for Mina to complete the next stage of the rites.

Back in Mina, pilgrims perform Ramy al-Jamarat, the stoning of the devil, over three days known as the Days of Tashreeq. At this time, they cast no less than 49 pebbles, traditionally collected at Muzdalifah, at the stone walls known as Jamarat. On the first day, pilgrims throw seven stones at the largest of them, Jamrat al-Aqaba.

On the following days, they stone all three pillars—starting with the smallest, then the middle, and finally the largest—seven pebbles each. By performing this ritual, pilgrims commemorate the Prophet Ibrahim’s resistance to temptation when fulfilling Allah’s command to sacrifice his own son. According to the Islamic tradition, the devil challenged the Prophet not to follow Allah’s will. Ibrahim had to fight Iblis three times with stones to prove his commitment. Today, the three Jamarat mark the spots where this event happened.

Between the 10th and the 12th days of Dhu al-Hijjah, pilgrims move between Makkah and Mina to perform the already familiar rites: stoning of the devil (Ramy al-Jamarat), circling the Kaaba (Tawaf al-Ifadah), and walking between the Al-Safa and Al-Marwah Hills (Sa'i). The last seven circles around the House of Allah, performed on the 12th day of the month, are known as the Farewell Tawaf. This final ritual closes the Hajj sequence. After days of movement between distant sites, the journey resolves at the place to which Muslims turn five times a day in prayer. The act is both completion and return: a last passage through the shared rhythm that has defined the pilgrimage.

In practical terms, this moment gathers one of the largest coordinated flows of people back into a single space. Pilgrims re-enter the Grand Mosque, merge into the circulating crowd, and perform the ritual within a system designed to handle continuous high-density movement. The pattern is familiar by now, but its scale remains striking: thousands moving in synchronised paths around a structure that has anchored the pilgrimage for centuries.