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29 March 2024

600,000 offer Ramadan prayers in Makkah

Published
By AFP

Some 600,000 Muslims crowded into the Grand Mosque in Islam's holiest city of Makkah for prayers on the last Friday of the Ramadan holy month, mosque officials said.

In all more than a million worshippers were in the mosque and surrounding areas, Said al Mansoori, a spokesman for the commission governing Makkah and Madina told AFP.

The two cities have swollen with worshippers from Saudi Arabia and around the world undertaking the umrah which peaks during Ramadan.

The Muslim fasting month ends on September 9 with the holiday of Eid al Fitr.

The month's last Friday, the Muslim holy day, is considered especially blessed.

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz was in Makkah on Friday to inaugurate a $187 million expansion of the Zamzam waterworks which serves up to worshippers the celebrated holy water from a spring beneath the city.

The new system can filter up to five million litres (1.3 million gallons) of Zamzam water per day.

Many overseas pilgrims take large jugs of the holy Zamzam water back home from Makkah.