1.7 million Muslims in Saudi Arabia for Hajj pilgrimage

By Fares Karam

RIYADH (AA) - The number of Muslim pilgrims to have arrived in Saudi Arabia -- from all over the world -- to perform this year’s Hajj pilgrimage now stands at 1,723,793, the Saudi authorities said Monday.

“As of Sunday, the number of pilgrims to have arrived [to Saudi Arabia] by air reached 1,620,592, while 88,374 had arrived by land and another 14,827 by sea,” Saudi Arabia’s General Directorate for Passports tweeted on Monday.

The number of arrivals is fast approaching the roughly 1.9 million Muslims who visited the kingdom last year for the 2016 Hajj pilgrimage, according to official figures.

Over the course of the last month, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have converged on Saudi Arabia from all over the world to perform this year’s pilgrimage, which all Muslims are obligated to do at least once in their lifetimes.