In on of them, Al Juhfa, located in the middle of the Hejaz desert about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Mecca, a group of Iranian pilgrims gathered around their buses parked outside a mosque.
"I recited labbeik an hour ago and started crying," says Mohammed Hossein Ranjbar, 54 of the central Iranian city of Isfahan, referring to a prayer in which pilgrims declare their submission to God and their intention to start Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
It is at Juhfa that pilgrims travelling in camel caravans from Damascus and Cairo stopped hundreds of years ago to perform ihram, a ritual of cleansing and prayers that is supposed to put the pilgrim in a state of sacred dedication.
Afterwards, the commencing the rites of Hajj inside Mecca can begin, which corresponding to the Muslim lunar calendar is scheduled to start on January 7 this year.
Men and women wrap themselves up in unsewn white cloth and vow to refrain from sexual activity, swearing, lying, speaking loudly, putting on perfume or killing animals.
The great majority of modern-day pilgrims travel in planes to Saudi Arabia arriving at the bustling airport of Jeddah, the kingdom's second largest city on the west coast.
Some come in a state of ihram, reciting their prayers inside the plane as it flies close to Mecca, while others prefer to follow old tradition and perform the ritual in one of five towns around Mecca designated by the Prophet Mohammed more than 1,400 years ago.
The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and every devout Muslim who has the means is required to complete it at least once.
More than 622,000 pilgrims had arrived in Saudi Arabia as of December 23, according to officials. In recent years, the total number of pilgrims coming for the annual Hajj has reached 2 million.
"Hajj is the biggest annual conference in the world," says Sheikh Khalaf Bin Mohammed Al Mutlaq, a cleric in charge of the Juhfa site.
He is seated on the floor of a carpeted room in a small building adjacent to the mosque. His associates listen intently as dates and cardamom-flavored coffees are passed around.
"It is a miracle the prophet foretold the eventual spread of Islam by outlining before his death the boundaries of the sacred realm with ihram sites, each designated to caravans depending on their origin," adds Sheikh Khalaf.
Inside the mosque, male Iranian pilgrims in white garb read the Koran, pray or stretch out on the carpeted floor for a nap ahead of their journey at sunset further north to Medina, burial place of Prophet Mohammed, before heading back south to Mecca.
A man with an amputated leg sits against the wall as his crutches lie nearby.
"It is really hard for me, but I am doing this for the second time for the love of God," says Mustafa Zariy, 44, from the Isfahan region, explaining that he is performing the Hajj this year on behalf of his father who died recently without having completed the rites.
He says he is going to try to be at peace with himself despite the "bitterness" he feels towards Western countries, which he claims were responsible for the loss of his leg in 1982 during Iran's long war with neighboring Iraq, ruled at the time by Saddam Hussein. Zariy says Saddam fought with arms supplied by countries including France.
Back at Jeddah's airport a group of gleeful Iraqi pilgrims arrive from the southern city of Basra.
Abdel Amir Amer, 41, proudly displays the pouch belt he will put on to hold his money after he switches into all-white ihram clothing at Abyar Ali near Medina.
"This is going to be fantastic," he says.
© 2005 Agence France-Presse
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