Masjid Al-Khayf
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Mina ( ar, مِنَى, translit=Minā), also known as Muna ( ar, مُنَى, Munā), and commonly known as the "City of Tents" is a valley and neighborhood located in the Masha'er district in the Makkah Province of
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
, southeast of the city of
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...
, covering an area of approximately . Mina incorporates the tents, the Jamarat area, and the slaughterhouses just outside the tent city. Mina is most famous for its role in the Hajj ("Pilgrimage"). To accommodate the pilgrims who stay in Mina over multiple nights in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, more than 100,000
air-conditioned Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
tents have been built in the area, giving Mina the nickname "City of Tents." With a capacity of up to 3 million people, Mina has been called the largest
tent city A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures. State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable te ...
in the world. The three Jamarat, located in the Mina valley, are the location of the
Stoning of the Devil The Stoning of the Devil ( ar, رمي الجمرات , " throwing of the ' lace of pebbles) is part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. During the ritual, Muslim pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls ( ...
, performed between
sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...
and sunset in the final days of the Hajj. The stone throwing ritual commemorates the Islamic Prophet Ibrahim (
Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...
)'s stoning of the devil, who wanted to prevent him from carrying out the command of Allāh to sacrifice his son,
Isma'il Ismail ( ar, إِسْمَاعِيْل, ʾIsmāʿīl) is regarded as a prophet and messenger and the ancestor to the Ishmaelites in Islam. He is the son of Ibrahim (Abraham), born to Hajar (Hagar). Ismail is also associated with Mecca and th ...
( Ishmael).


History

In Islamic tradition, Ibrahim left his wife,
Hagar Hagar, of uncertain origin; ar, هَاجَر, Hājar; grc, Ἁγάρ, Hagár; la, Agar is a biblical woman. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as ''Sarai''), whom Sarah gave to h ...
(
Hagar Hagar, of uncertain origin; ar, هَاجَر, Hājar; grc, Ἁγάρ, Hagár; la, Agar is a biblical woman. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as ''Sarai''), whom Sarah gave to h ...
) and their son, Isma'il, in the valley of
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...
when Ishmael was an infant. Upon one of his visits to his family in Mecca, he was ordered by Allah in a
dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
to sacrifice his son in the Mina valley. While carrying out his sacrifice, he was interrupted by a devil and was commanded by Allah to stone the devil. The ritual of the
stoning of the Devil The Stoning of the Devil ( ar, رمي الجمرات , " throwing of the ' lace of pebbles) is part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. During the ritual, Muslim pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls ( ...
is a commemoration of this belief. Mina is also believed to be the location of the pledges of al-Aqabah. Before the tents were built, pilgrims would bring their own tents to the valley and dismantle them while returning from the Hajj. Sometime in the 1990s, permanent cotton tents were installed by the Saudi government. These cotton tents were especially susceptible to fires, which took many of the pilgrims' lives. After the 1997 Mina fires which resulted in the deaths of more than 340 pilgrims, more than 100,000 permanent tents, measuring , were built. These are constructed of
fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...
with an outer coating of
Teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that has numerous applications. It is one of the best-known and widely applied PFAS. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemo ...
to protect them from fires. The tents are grouped into camps, each with their own exterior walls, and divided by the nationalities of pilgrims, providing temporary accommodation to up to 3 million pilgrims. Each camp is equipped with a
kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running wate ...
,
bathroom A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...
s, and ablution facilities, and is connected to the other camps by pathways. The tents are also marked with unique color-and-number pairs to make them more identifiable.


Incidents during the Hajj

Owing to its location and the extreme numbers of pilgrims during the Hajj, Mina and the surrounding region, especially the Jamarat Bridge, are hotspots for stampedes, the deadliest of which was the 2015 stampede, resulting in the deaths of more than 2,000 pilgrims:


Geography

Mina is situated in the eponymous Mina valley, at an elevation of approximately 400 m (1320 ft). It is bordered by the ''al-'Aziziyah'' district of Mecca in the west, the 4th Ring Road to the north,
Muzdalifah Muzdalifah ( ar, مُزْدَلِفَة) is an open and level area near Mecca in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia that is associated with the ("Pilgrimage"). It lies just southeast of Mina, on the route between Mina and Arafat. Pilgrimage ...
to the east, and the ''al-Jami'ah'' district to the south. The westernmost features of Mina are the three Jamarat, which are stoned during the
Stoning of the Devil The Stoning of the Devil ( ar, رمي الجمرات , " throwing of the ' lace of pebbles) is part of the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. During the ritual, Muslim pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls ( ...
. These are, the ''Jamarat al-Sughra''', the westernmost and smallest, the ''Jamarat al-Wusta''', the intermediary, and the ''Jamarat al-Kubra, also called ''Jamarat al-'Aqabah,'' the largest and easternmost. In a 2003 study, the distance between the first two was measured to be 135 m (443 ft) and the distance between the latter two was measured at 225 m (738 ft). To the north-east of Mina are the slaughterhouses, where the sacrificial animals of the ''Hajj'' pilgrims are slaughtered. The ''Masjid al-Khayf'' () is located in the centre of the Mina valley, and is active only during the Hajj.


Infrastructure

The Masjid al-Khayf, covering approximately , is the largest mosque in Mina.


Transport

Highway 40, one of Saudi Arabia's most important highways, is less than from Mina and is accessible through the Al Hajj Street. The Mashaer Al-Muqaddassah Metro, currently Saudi Arabia's only complete metro line, is active only during the Hajj, and ends in Mina, near the ''Jamarat al-'Aqaba'', with Mina Station 3. Running northwest, it starts in 'Arafat, going through
Muzdalifah Muzdalifah ( ar, مُزْدَلِفَة) is an open and level area near Mecca in the Hejazi region of Saudi Arabia that is associated with the ("Pilgrimage"). It lies just southeast of Mina, on the route between Mina and Arafat. Pilgrimage ...
, before reaching Mina Station 1, near the Armed Forces Hospital. The next station, less than , is the Mina Station 2, located near the Mina al-Jisr Hospital. Finally, the line terminates near the Jamarat, at Mina Station 3.


See also

* Sarat Mountains **
Hijaz Mountains The Hijaz Mountains ( ar, جِبَال ٱلْحِجَاز, Jibāl al-Ḥijāz ()) or "Hejaz Range" is a mountain range located in the Hejazi region of western Saudi Arabia. The range runs north and south along the eastern coast of the Red Sea, ...


References


External links


Mina photograph gallery
{{Authority control Geography of Saudi Arabia Hajj Neighborhoods of Mecca