"Mina Photos" a Mina Travel Page by arabian10

Mina is considered to be the most densely packed gathering place for human beings in the world. This is because of the limited area which is available to living space in relation to the large numbers of pilgrims who must be accommodated during the pilgrimage season while taking into consideration the elements of security. Safety and the comfort of the pilgrims.

For these reasons this area in the past has been the scene of a number of accidents involving fires or outbreaks of diseases despite extreme care taden by the Saudi authorities. Consequently a new idea for an accommodation project at Mina was born which involved the use of fire-proof tents in place of the traditional tents.

The first stage of this project was executed during the pilgrimage season of 1417 AH and it covered the entire area including Rabwat Mina and the largest part of the wadi between the area east of the King Abdulaziz Bridge, west of King Khalid Bridge, north of King Fahd street and south of the pedestrian walkway. The entire area covers nearly 850,000 square metres divided into 32 areas of 144 tents each i.e., more than ten thousand tents

The execution of the first stage lasted for almost seven months, a record time in comparison to the size of the project.

After the 1417 AH season, the second stage began. It included a million square metres of tents distributed over a flat area of 1.4 million metres.

The third stage of the project which was undertaken in 1420 AH covered the remainder of the pilgrim tents in Mina in addition to the terraces which were created in order to use some of the hill areas in the vicinity of al-Sha'batain and the areas east of Mina as far as the King Faisal bridge in Muzdalifa and then on to the AL-Mu'aysim Road.

The tent project also included the area of the old Yudiyya Sheep Abattoir and in its place a new abattoir was set up in AL-Mu'aysim area. The old camel and cattle abattoir was also taken down and moved to places outside the tent areas. This gave extra space for pilgrim's accommodation.

The Ministry of Public Work set up a number of supporting projects in Mina during these three years among which were three water tanks in addition to the tanks which were already in existence in order to extend the water supply. It also constructed a new sewage system in the new tent area besides developing a desalination plant located near Mina.

A rainwater drainage system was developed for entire Mina area to protect the tent areas from the dangers of floods. This system involved the construction of open drainage channels on the tops of the mountains surrounding the tent camps as well as setting up a net work of roadside rain water drainage ditches. Reinforced concrete boxes and supporting walls were also built in order to level and prepare the areas for the construction of living areas.

Source of this article: Haj & Umra magazine / February 2003

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