photograph courtesy of Saudi Embassy

The annual Hajj is a strict appointment, beginning the ninth day of the last month of the Muslim calendar. Those who miss the Hajj's central rite--a next day's vigil on the Plain of Arafat, located 12 miles southwest of Mecca--miss the Hajj altogether, although they may return another year.

Sometime before this, every pilgrim traditionally performs a set of rites in the Grand Mosque located in the center of Mecca. And after the vigil at Arafat, those rites continue on for a few more days.

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