More than a million pilgrims joined Islam‘s most important rite under a beating sun on Wednesday, as the hajj kicked off with the Saudi hosts scrambling to avoid last year’s 1,000-plus deaths in sweltering heat.
With temperatures expected to top 40 degrees Celsius, robed pilgrims slowly circled the Kaaba – the black cube at the heart of Mecca‘s Grand Mosque that is Islam’s holiest site.
State media reported that others had begun arriving in the sprawling tent city of Mina on…