A record-breaking number of Muslims officially began the annual Hajj pilgrimage on Monday in Saudi Arabia and these are the essentials needed for the trek.
Straw hats, cross-body bags, and collapsible chairs are just some of the essentials people bring to the Hajj pilgrimage, which will see full capacity this year for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.
Around two million people will take part in the five-day experience which brings Muslims closer to God and to the entire Muslim world.
Pilgrims will walk outdoors for hours around holy sites in Mecca and the surrounding desert. People will make their way out of Mecca after circling Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, and then converge on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night of prayer.
Umaima Hafez, from Egypt, has done the pilgrimage five times and tells Associated Press how to pack like a pro.
Sitting on her portable plastic stool, she reaches into her large pack and pulls out a blanket, homemade granola and crackers, a travel towel that she wets and places on her head when it gets hot, an extra-thick prayer mat - for her knees - and some medications.
"Everything is beautiful and easy with God. - And people give out a lot of water and food here", she says everything is easier with God on the journey.
Hassan Hussain, a 24-year-old first-time pilgrim from the UK, also packed lots of essentials and his bag is rammed with his phone, charging cable, power bank, sunglasses, water bottle, British and Saudi currency, bank cards, shoe bag, a prayer mat and hydrating facial mist.
He said his sister, who did the Hajj last year, told him what to bring. His advice to other pilgrims is to overpack.
"You don't know when you're going to need things," he said. "The person next to you might need things. Just take everything and work it out as you go along."
Ali Ibn Mousa, a 30-year-old Russian and father of seven, goes for the lighter-packing method, with just a small drawstring bag that holds his phone and his pilgrim ID.
He said: "If I had a heavy bag, I wouldn't be able to do some of the things I want to. That's why I take a small bag that is easy to carry, so I can run inside."
Pilgrims begin by entering a state of spiritual purity known as "ihram."
Men wear simple, white terrycloth garments and women forgo make-up and cover their hair. The pilgrims circle the black, cube-shaped Kaaba seven times and walk between two hills, all of which are encompassed by Mecca's Grand Mosque, the world's largest.
The rituals during Hajj largely commemorate the Quran's accounts of Ibrahim, his son Ismail and Ismail's mother Hajar. The walk between the hills, for example, recreates Hajar's search for water in the desert for Ismail.
In Islamic tradition, Ibrahim was ordered by God to sacrifice his son, Ismail, only to have his hand stayed at the last moment. Muslims believe Ibrahim and Ismail later built the Kaaba, which Muslims face during their daily prayers no matter where they are in the world.
In the Christian and Jewish traditions, which refer to him as Abraham, the biblical patriarch is ordered to sacrifice his other son, Isaac.
The giant flows of pilgrims move back and forth between holy sites spread out over a length of more than 10 miles from the Grand Mosque to Mount Arafat, out in the desert.
Even within a single ritual site, it can take much of the day to walk from one end to another, like Mina, where pilgrims will stay in one of the world's largest tent camps and stone the pillars representing the devil.
Pilgrims have been doing the ritual circuit around the Kaaba since arriving in Mecca in recent days.
As the last ones performed it Monday, the pilgrims made their way by foot or by bus to Mina, where they will camp in one of the largest tent cities in the world.
They will pray throughout the day and night before travelling on Tuesday to Mount Arafat, where the Prophet Muhammad is said to have delivered his final sermon.
The pilgrims will then collect pebbles from a site known as Muzdalifa to be used in the symbolic stoning of pillars representing the devil back in Mina. The final three days of the Hajj coincide with the festive Eid al-Adha holiday when Muslims around the world slaughter livestock and distribute the meat to the poor.
