Haj is associated with the life of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) from the 7th century, but the ritual of pilgrimage to Mecca is considered by Muslims to stretch back thousands of years to the time of Abraham (Ibrahim).
Pilgrims join processions of hundreds of thousands of people, who simultaneously converge on Mecca for the week of the Haj, and perform a series of rituals: each person walks counter-clockwise seven times around the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building which acts as the Muslim direction of prayer, runs back and forth between the hills of Al-Safa and Al-Marwah, drinks from the Zamzam Well, goes to the plains of Mount Arafat to stand in vigil, and throws stones at the Devil in a ritual.
