Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims march near Mecca to throw stones at walls, symbolic of the rejection of temptation.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims marched through a maze of cement and plastic crowd control blocks as they headed to the stoning of the devil ritual on Monday. The barriers are designed to direct the flow of the worshippers to three spots where they will throw pebbles at walls that represent the devil in the most accident-prone ritual of the annual Haj pilgrimage. More than two million Muslims were expected to make the journey. The event in past years has been the scene of deadly stampedes -- 362 people were crushed to death in 2006, but Saudi authorities have made renovations to ease the flow of pilgrims.SOUNDBITES:
Nigerian pilgrim, Abdullah Mohammad Anwar
British pilgrim, Naseer
