Ibtesam Gul
Over a Million Steps in the Shade
Every year, roughly two million people converge on a stretch of land near Makkah during some of the hottest days on the calendar. They walk the same routes, at the same hours, under the same punishing sun. Mina has never been a comfortable place — it was never designed to be. But this Hajj season, something is different underfoot, and overhead.
Kidana Development Company, the executive arm of the Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites, has completed the second phase of its pedestrian walkway shading project in Mina, finishing the section that links the two Al-Sha’bain tunnels. Together, both phases now cover more than 103,000 square meters of walking routes — roughly 14 football pitches of canopy stretched across the most congested corridors of the holy site.
The numbers behind the project tell most of the story. Phase one covered 95,000 square meters and put 990 misting fans to work along the busiest passageways. Phase two added another 8,130 square meters of canopy and brought 72 more misting fans online in newly developed areas, along with a surveillance camera network to help manage crowd flow and safety.
The timing matters. Hajj 1447 falls during summer, when midday temperatures in Mina can climb well past 40°C. For pilgrims who spend hours walking between ritual sites — many of them elderly, many traveling from countries far hotter on paper but far less humid — sustained sun exposure along those routes is a real physical risk, not an inconvenience.
What the project does, practically, is cut down direct sunlight along the paths that see the heaviest foot traffic, while the misting fans lower the ambient temperature enough to make the difference between a difficult walk and a dangerous one. The camera network adds a layer of crowd monitoring that helps authorities spot bottlenecks before they become emergencies.
The project is part of a broader push by the Royal Commission to upgrade infrastructure across the holy sites ahead of this year’s season — but this particular piece of it is one pilgrims will feel immediately, whether or not they ever read a press release about it.
