Annual Divine Journey of Makkah

A large number of Muslims visits Makkah every year for the purpose of Hajj or Umrah. Hajj has more significance as compared to Umrah and number of people during the Haj are in millions. Hajj is compulsory and it occurs at a specific time in a year whereas the Umrah is not mandatory and it can be performed throughout the year. Hajj is mandatory for those Muslim who are capable of afford its expenses and are physically able to perform all the rituals. The statistics showing the number of pilgrims from the different countries coming to Makkah to perform Hajj are as follows• According to the command of Allah Almighty and in the light of Islamic teaching Muslims who are able to perform, should perform Hajj at least once in their life due to this fact each year huge crowds are drawn to Makkah to carry out a series of rituals and prayers aimed at eliminating past sins during Hajj. Saudi Arabia has hosted 24.8 million pilgrims from all over the world during the past 10 years,• According to the Al-Eqtisadiah daily report, in last ten years the largest number of pilgrims that were witnessed in 2012-13 were 2,254,366 lakhs that performed Hajj and the lowest number was recorded in 2002-2003 with only 1,328,638 lakhs pilgrims on Hajj.• The number of pilgrims traveling for Hajjdropped a little bit due to the government decision to cut the number of foreign pilgrims by 20% and domestic pilgrims by 50% due to the ongoing expansion projects in Makkah and Madinah.• In 2015 about 2,744,367 pilgrims performed Hajj with cheap hajj package. From South Africa, a huge number of pilgrims has arrived this year. With 293,200 pilgrims coming from the Indonesia account for about 21% of the total number of foreign pilgrim’s quota set by the Saudi Arabia.• Pilgrims coming from Pakistan were 189,500 pilgrims and India having pilgrims 151,500 on Hajj occupied second and third place respectively on the list of countries.• Egypt is at number four with 126,600 pilgrims, and Bangladesh is on thefifth number with 102,900 pilgrims.• Around 67,000 Egyptians account for 10% of the 696,200 domestic pilgrims while 41,900 Pakistanis account for about 6% in the allocated quota.• Indians accounted for about 2% of domestic pilgrims while Indonesians and Yemenis each of them account for about 1%.• The Saudi government has spent more than $100 billion which is equal to SR375 billion to upgrade pilgrimage facilities during Hajj.• According to the official data, there were 1,660,365 pilgrims in the year of 2004-2005 that increased to 1,736,348 Lakhs in 2006-2007.• This number of 2006 -2007 further increased by about 3% in the value in the year 2008-2009 reaching up to 1,687,832 Lakhs.• In the following three years the number of the pilgrims showed a steady increase, reaching to 2,160,261 Lakhs in the year 2010-2011, 2,254,366 Lakhs in 2012-2013 and 2,744,367 Lakhs in 2014-2015, with an increase of 8 percent annually. The rise in the number of foreign pilgrims over the past 100 years was outstanding, due to the advancement in transportation means and excellent efforts by the Saudi Arabian leadership to develop proper infrastructure facilities in the two holy cities as well as the in the pilgrimage sites.• According to data collected from arelevant official body, less than 60,000 foreigners performed Hajj Pilgrimage in the year 1920.