Visits To Mecca Landmark Curtailed Over Intense Heat
The visit hours to an Islamic landmark near the Saudi holy city of Mecca have been shortened for months due to extreme heat.
The Hira Cultural Centre has cut by five hours daily visits to the Cave of Hira, about 5 kilometres from Mecca, starting from last Wednesday until the commencement of the Islamic lunar month of Rabia I, corresponding to next August.
The centre said that the competent authorities had issued directives to temporarily close the road leading to Mount Hira daily from 11am to 4pm because of high temperatures.
The Cave of Hira is where the Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) received the first revelation of the Holy Quran through the angel Gabriel.
The cave is a major draw to Muslims visiting Saudi Arabia to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage or the Umrah (minor pilgrimage).
The weather will be hot to extremely hot at the holy sites during the Hajj rites, the kingdom's meteorology office has forecast, amid diverse projects implemented by the kingdom to cool heat for the faithful.
The Saudi National Centre of Meteorology expected that maximum temperatures at the holy sites in and around Mecca will range from 40 to 47 degrees Celsius, with an expected humidity level of 15% to 60%.
Saudi Arabia has unveiled a string of projects in the run-up to this year's Hajj that starts later this week to beat the scorching temperatures and spare the pilgrims heat stress.
The projects included expanding the use of cooled and rubberized roads designed to reduce the impact of heat.
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