AFP, Makkah

The biggest hajj pilgrimage since the Covid pandemic began yesterday, with hundreds of thousands of worshippers at Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia’s Makkah.

One million fully vaccinated Muslims, including 850,000 from abroad, are allowed at this year’s hajj, a major break from two years of drastically curtailed numbers due to the pandemic.

At Makkah’s Grand Mosque, pilgrims performed the “tawaf”, the circumambulation of the Kaaba, the large cubic structure draped in golden-embroidered black cloth that Muslims around the world turn towards to pray.

Authorities said last month that masks would be required at the site, but that has been largely ignored so far this week.