July 3, 1990

On this day in history in 1990 over 1,400 people were killed in a stampede in a tunnel near Mecca during the Hajj.

The Hajj

The Hajj is an annual annual Islamic pilgrimage by Muslims to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Mecca is considered the holiest city to Muslims and it is mandatory that they complete the Hajj at least once in their lifetime (if they're physically and financially capable). Because the Hajj occurs during only one week of the year millions of Muslim people converge on the city in that single week. Because of this enormous number there have been numerous incidents during the Hajj involving crowd control that have resulted in casualties.

The Stoning of the Devil

One part of the ritual acts during the Hajj is throwing pebbles at three walls in the city of Mina, which is just east of Mecca. This is symbolic of Abraham's own pilgrimage to Mecca where the devil appeared to him and he stoned three pillars he appeared in front of to make him withdraw. The walls devoted followers stone today used to be pillars as in Abraham's time, but were replaced with walls when bystanders were being hit by the thrown rocks that would miss the smaller pillars.

The Tunnel of Tragedy

There is an 1800 foot long (by 35 feet wide) tunnel that leads out of Mecca towards Mina where the Stoning of the Devil occurs. While pedestrians were traveling to perform that ritual several pedestrians fell off a bridge on people exiting the tunnel. This created a "traffic jam" where the 1,000 person capacity tunnel was filled with 5,000. Temperatures outside were over 100 degrees and the heat inside the poorly ventilated tunnel is likely a factor in the crowd hysteria that occurred, along with the pilgrims who had fallen off the bridge. By the time the stampede was done and the hysteria faded away 1,426 people had either suffocated or been trampled to death.