Nov. 12, 2010
Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Vendors outside the entrance to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia were doing a brisk business selling scented prayer rugs, deodorants and gas masks to filter out the stench of unwashed bodies who flocked to the shrine in an annual pilgrimage. Temperatures hovered in the low 100's inside the Mosque, which is not air conditioned because it is believed Mohammad, the Prophet, would not have approved. Of course no one knows for sure because there was no air conditioning when Mohammad was alive. But modern Muslim clerics have insisted that the austerity advocated by the Prophet is sufficient proof of what he would have favored in 2010, had he lived that long.
Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims are pictured here praying inside the Grand Mosque, during the annual Hajj in Mecca, Friday, Nov. 12, 2010. The annual Islamic pilgrimage draws 3 million visitors each year, making it the largest yearly gathering of people in the world, surpassing the Monterrey Jazz Festival and the American Bikers' As sociation annual gathering at Sturgis, South Dakota.
Hundreds of parked camels, Jeep Wranglers and Lamborghinis added to the stench and general confusion as their owners worshiped inside the Mosque. Saudi Secret Service agents were seen wrestling several shady looking characters to the ground inside the Mosque in a search for explosive devices or contraband goats' milk, highly favored by wealthy Muslim connoisseurs.
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