Saudi hosts urge pilgrims to stay indoors during Haj high point
MECCA: Saudi authorities have asked pilgrims performing the Haj to remain in their tents for several hours during the high point of this week's pilgrimage, citing high temperatures.
According to a report in Saudi media, Minister of Hajj Tawfiq al Rabiah has requested that pilgrims refrain from leaving their tents between 10.00 am and 4.00 pm on Thursday.
The "Day of Arafa" traditionally marks the high point of the Haj, when pilgrims scale Mount Arafat on the outskirts of Mecca.
There, pilgrims assemble on the 70-metre (230-foot) high hill and its surrounding plain for hours of prayer and Quran recital, staying there until the evening.
There is little to no shade on Mount Arafat, leaving pilgrims directly exposed to the harsh sun for hours.
"We warn against climbing mountains or high places on the Day of Arafa, as it causes extreme physical exertion and increases the risk of heat exhaustion," the health ministry said in a separate statement published by Saudi media.
Officials have beefed up heat mitigation measures hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's Haj, which saw 1,301 pilgrims die as temperatures reached 51.8 degrees Celsius.
Working day and night in front of maps, screens and seemingly endless data, Saudi officials have harnessed artificial intelligence during the Haj.
The technology has proven pivotal to track the overwhelming amount of footage from more than 15,000 cameras in and around the holy city of Mecca. The systems are tuned to spot abnormal crowd movements or predict bottlenecks in foot traffic -- a potential life-saver at a packed event with a history of deadly stampedes.
Software is also used to help guide more than 20,000 buses deployed to transport pilgrims between holy sites during one of the world's biggest annual religious gatherings. "In our traffic control room, we use specialised cameras that have AI layers to analyse movements, crowded areas" and predict behaviours, said Mohamed Nazier, chief executive officer for the General Transport Centre at the Royal Commission for Mecca.
The centre has a main control room in Mecca filled with screens and maps, where staff use high-tech tools including AI for round-the-clock monitoring.
About a dozen staff members sit in rows before desktop computers with a large display at the front, zooming in on crowd movements around the holy sites.
On hillsides nearby, cameras that resemble little white robots film buildings, roads and pathways along the Haj route, which winds more than 20 kilometres (12 miles) between Mecca and Mount Arafat. - AFP - SEE ALSO P4
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