Shade for rent in Makkah

Muslim pilgrims turning to trees to evade the hot sunny days in Saudi Arabia were surprised to see newly-erected sign boards telling them they have to pay if they want to use the tree shade, Bab newspaper reported on Friday.

The boards have been set up by some Makkah residents who sought to illegally make money from the more than 1.7 million pilgrims who converged on Islam’s holiest shrine this week for their annual pilgrimage, it said.

“Makkah’s residents have come up with a novel idea to make money…….some of them have seized trees in the city to rent their shade to the pilgrims away from the eyes of the government which has been busy with more important issues,” the Arabic language daily said.

It quoted a government official in Makkah as saying this practice is illegal on the grounds trees are a public property. “No one has the right to use these trees for any purpose…this is against the law,” the official said.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.