Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Agayeva / This year, 6,000 Muslims will make a religious pilgrimage from Azerbaijan. The spaces designated this year for 4,500 people by the Caucasus Muslims Board (CMB) have been fulfilled, and the remaining participants have been covered by private tourist companies involved in the organization of pilgrimages to Hajj, said Mugaddas Payizov, the head of Foreign Relations Department of the CMB, on 21 November.
The first group of pilgrims will begin their trip on 3 December by two bus caravans. Each caravan will be comprised of 35 buses. The pilgrims who prefer to travel by air will leave for Hajj on 9, 10 and 12 December.
The bus route remains unchanged, running through Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Along the way, participants will have an opportunity to visit sacred Muslim places, Payizov said.
Those traveling by air will fly via the Baku-Jeddah route and from there, will continue to Mecca by bus. On the return trip, the pilgrims will not fly through Jeddah, but from Medina, as in previous years. "It will simplify the flight of Azerbaijani pilgrims to the Motherland, who previously used to wait for their flights for several days due to the busy schedule of the Jeddah airport," he added.