Impact of Pilgrimage (Hajj) on the Urban Growth of the Mecca

The holy city of Makkah is located in the southwest of Saudi Arabia, and it is considered the spiritual capital of one and half billion Muslims worldwide and being visited by millions of pilgrims every year. However, the urban extent of Makah is constrained by the surrounding mountain ranges, but the developments of modern transport means (i.e. roads and ports) has resulted in the increase of pilgrims visiting Makah around the year. Concurrently, the landuse of Makah has drastically changed to cope with the increasing services required for pilgrims. Therefore, the town center of Makah, particularly around the Holy Mosque and the sacred sites of pilgrimage was redeveloped into sets of hotels and stores, which can be considered as the tourism zone in Makah. Moreover, the residential areas has expanded outside the current tourism zone, thus the urban development is being affected by the pilgrims activities. Therefore, this paper investigated the interaction between the evolution of pilgrims numbers, the urban growth and problems arising during the pilgrimage season. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v3n2p25