Haj , tent city in Mina

Thousands of tents housing Muslim pilgrims are crowded together in Mina near Mecca, today

These astonishing images show a vast tent city housing thousands of Muslims in Saudi Arabia for the holy hajj pilgrimage.
Later in the day, pilgrims enjoyed a feast of freshly slaughtered sheep, goats and camels at a huge tent city in Mina, a desert valley east of Islam's holiest city, Mecca, where the Kabaa resides.
Similar sacrifices, marking the start of the Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice, were carried out by Muslims around the world.
The holiday commemorates a story celebrated by Muslims, Jews and Christians in which God asked the prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son to prove his faith, but then in the end offered a sheep to kill instead.
Muslim tradition says it was at Mina, 3 miles (5 kilometres) from Mecca, that the devil tried to tempt Abraham to disobey God by refusing to sacrifice his son.