This year’s pilgrimage, attended by more than 1.8 million people, was under tight logistical planning and safety precautions designed to manage the intense heat and large crowds

Large numbers of Muslims converge once a year on Saudi Arabia to unite in a series of religious rituals and acts of worship as they perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage that is one of the pillars of Islam.

Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims clambered up rocks and nestled between boulders on Thursday as they embarked on a day of worship under a scorching sun at the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.