Over 1,000 lives were lost in a deadly heatwave during this year’s Hajj, with a significant number being unregistered pilgrims, including 630 Egyptians. The pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia’s scorching Mecca saw temperatures peak at 51.8°C (125°F) this week, highlighting severe health risks.

Over a thousand people have died during this year’s hajj, with over half of the dead being unregistered pilgrims who underwent the sweltering Saudi Arabian heat for the trip.

According to an Arab ambassador who supplied a breakdown indicating that 630 of the 658 Egyptians who died were unregistered pilgrims, 58 of the fresh deaths announced on Thursday were from Egypt.

One of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims who have the means to do so must at least once accomplish is the pilgrimage, of which 1,081 deaths have been documented from about ten different nations.

This year, the hajj took place in the middle of Saudi Arabia’s scorching heat, as per the lunar Islamic calendar.

The Grand Mosque in Mecca recorded a maximum temperature of 51.8C (125F) this week, according to the National Meteorological Center.

According to Saudi research released last month, the region’s temperatures are increasing by 0.4C every ten years.

Tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to participate in the hajj through unofficial routes every year because they are unable to pay for the very expensive official visas.

Although hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims were reportedly cleared from Mecca this month, according to Saudi authorities, many appear to have continued to partake in the main rituals, which got underway last Friday. This group was particularly vulnerable since they were unable to enter the air-conditioned areas meant to keep the 1.8 million authorized pilgrims cool in the absence of formal permissions.

“People were tired after being chased by security forces before Arafat day. They were exhausted,” one Arab diplomat said on Thursday, referring to Saturday’s day-long outdoor prayers, which marked the culmination of the hajj.

The ambassador stated that heat-related issues, such as high blood pressure, were the primary cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims.

According to a statement released by the foreign ministry on Thursday, Egyptian officials were touring hospitals in order to gather data and facilitate the provision of medical care for Egyptian pilgrims.

It stated, “However, there are large numbers of Egyptian citizens who are not registered in hajj databases, which requires double the effort and a longer time to search for missing persons and find their relatives.”

Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt, has directed the prime minister to lead a “crisis cell” that will investigate the pilgrimage deaths throughout the nation.

According to a statement released by his office, Sisi emphasized “the need for immediate coordination with the Saudi authorities to facilitate receiving the bodies of the deceased and streamline the process.”

On Thursday, Pakistan and Indonesia also announced further deaths.

According to a diplomat, Pakistan has so far reported 58 deaths out of roughly 150,000 pilgrims. “I think given the number of people, given the weather, this is just natural,” the diplomat said.

The religious affairs ministry of Indonesia, which hosted over 240,000 pilgrims, said that the country’s death toll had increased to 183 from 313 the previous year.

Additionally, the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, Malaysia, India, Jordan, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan, and Sudan have confirmed deaths. Authorities have frequently failed to identify the cause.

Fearing the worst, friends and family have been looking for missing pilgrims, combing hospitals, and begging online for updates.

On Thursday, two diplomats reported that the Saudi authorities had started the process of burying the pilgrims who had died. They had cleaned the bodies, covered them with white burial cloths, and taken them to be buried.

“The burial is done by the Saudi authorities. One ambassador added, “They have their own system, so we just follow that.” His nation was making every effort to inform loved ones.

The other diplomat stated that, given the large number of deaths in Egypt, it would be unfeasible to alert many families in advance.

Saudi Arabia reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone, although it has not released any information on deaths.

Over 300 people died while doing the hajj in various locations last year, the majority of whom were Indonesians.

The Hajj occurs around 11 days earlier in June on the Gregorian calendar every year, therefore it will occur earlier in June and maybe in milder weather the next year.

The climate catastrophe will cause heat stress for hajj pilgrims to surpass the “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052 and 2079 to 2086, “with increasing frequency and intensity as the century progresses,” according to a 2019 study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that, according to the Jeddah Historic District Program, over 25,000 artifacts were unearthed in the historic Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah.