Some 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims are descending on Makkah for the annual Haj amid tight security and with new facilities, including a railway, to ease the occasionally fatal congestion. Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has said he cannot rule out an al Qaeda attempt to disrupt the five-day ritual, which begins on Sunday, although the group has not attacked pilgrims in the past.
Were it to do so, it would embarrass Saudi Arabia, which many Muslims consider the guardian of Islam's two holiest cities, Makkah and Medina, and which showcased its security forces in a military parade on Wednesday.
Final figures for this year are not definite yet, as pilgrims continue to arrive from abroad, and the number of local ones is still uncertain.
There are also always a number of illegal pilgrims without permits filtering through the various checkpoints leading to Makkah. By Tuesday, police had stopped 29,000 of those.
The road between Makkah and the Red Sea port of Jeddah, which is the gateway for many pilgrims, is dotted with checkpoints to verify the documents of people travelling to the holy city.
"We are ready for any act that might take place. God willing, nothing of that will happen, out of respect to this rite," he said after a demonstration of skills by security forces and civil defence.
Special troops dangled from helicopters, climbed moving ladders used in storming attacks, and acrobatically jumped from deployment vehicles, while special rapid-deployment squads and anti-riot vehicles were on parade.
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