Friday, June 14, 2024 at 10:23
Mina – Pilgrims to the Holy Places of Islam began, from the early hours of Friday (8 Dou Al Hijja 1445 A.H.), first day of Haj (Tarwiya), to flock to Mina where they must spend the night to go, at daybreak, to Mount Arafa to perform the most important rite of the pilgrimage.
Coming from all over the world, pilgrims flocked to the Mina valley located 5 km east of Mecca, in an atmosphere of fervor, contemplation, devotion and prayer, before starting the next day at the first hours, the ascent of Mount Arafa.
The site of Mina, a desert place on the road from Mecca to Mount Arafa, has particular importance in the rites of the pilgrimage because it is at its western entrance, at the Jamarate Bridge, that the stoning ritual takes place. stelae of Satan, and it is also the place where Sidna Ibrahim immolated the sacrifice of her son Ismail, a gesture perpetuated by the prophet Sidna Mohammed.
Saudi Arabia has made important arrangements to welcome the pilgrims, including preparing four hospitals with all specialties and services to combat heat stress and sunstroke.
Multi-story residential towers have also been built in Mina to accommodate more than 30,000 pilgrims, with modern designs inspired by the urban identity of the Holy Sites.
Furthermore, the “Holy Places train”, which serves 9 stations distributed between the different Holy Places and connected by a double railway 18 kilometers long, is ready for use by pilgrims.
With a capacity to accommodate 72,000 passengers per hour in each direction, the train makes more than 2,000 journeys to facilitate the movement of pilgrims between different locations.
The train reaches a speed of 80 km/h and can cover the distance between Mina and Arafat in twenty minutes. The Holy Places railway fleet consists of 17 trains, with a capacity of 3,000 passengers each, or more than 350,000 pilgrims for each complete journey.
