The annual Haj pilgrimage was a remarkable success last year, thanks to the expansion projects carried out by the Saudi government, particularly at the Grand Mosque in Makkah as well as at the holy sites of Mina and Arafat, under the patronage of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Most of projects are now near completion and ready to receive the guests of Allah for this year's Haj. As part of King Abdullah's orders to further improve Haj services and facilities for pilgrims, expansion work on a major scale has taken place in and around the Grand Mosque. Al-Masa'a, the area between Safa and Marwa (small hill areas), located inside the mosque, has been expanded to help pilgrims perform the ritual of Sai'e (walking between Safa and Marwa) more comfortably. The first stage of the expanded area was opened for pilgrims for the first time during the Haj last year. Before the current expansion work, the capacity in Al-Masa'a was 44,000 people per hour and its accommodation capacity was 42,000 worshippers (for Sai'e). But under the new expansion, which will be completed in a few days, the picture will change significantly as the capacity of Al-Masa'a will jump to 118,000 pilgrims per hour with its area able to accommodate more than 115,600 worshippers. The project has been carried out in two phases, and more than 3,000 workers have participated in the construction work which has been underway for the past three years. The new expansion has increased the total area of Al-Masa'a from 29,400 sq. m to 87,000 sq. m. at a cost of more than SR2,985 million. More than 700 Saudi youth have participated in the construction work throughout the past three years, carrying on their shoulders marble and reinforced bars and other equipment. It is to be noted that these youths were trained in concrete work, ironsmith and carpentry in the Kingdom's vocational institutes. Speaking about the nature of his job, Saleh Al-Jahni, one of the Saudi workers, said, “We work in several groups. An engineer supervises each group of 10 workers. We start working early in the morning (immediately after the Fajr prayers) and wind up our job at 5 P.M. Each group does a different kind of work.” Many scholars have commended the ongoing project. Dr. Saleh Bin Ghanem Al-Sadlan, a professor in the postgraduate department at Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University, said, “The expansion of Al-Masa'a is required by the tremendous increase in the number of pilgrims as well as worshippers.” He stressed that this expansion has been necessitated by the overcrowding which is worse every year in this particular area, especially as studies show that the number of pilgrims will increase to 10 million after 50 years.
