Inside Mecca’s Matrix: 5,000 CCTV cameras watch over one of the world’s biggest crowds as 100,000 security officers prepare for the influx of three million pilgrims expected at the Hajj

Saudi Arabia has deployed 100,000 security personnel to oversee the annual Islamic Hajj pilgrimage – underscoring the multitude of threats one of the largest pilgrimages in the world faces.

Roughly 3million people from around the world are expected to converge on Tuesday at the Kaaba, in Mina and other nearby areas for the Hajj, which lasts about five days.

It is series of rituals meant to cleanse the soul of sins and instill a sense of equality and brotherhood. All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj once in their lives.

But such a huge undertaking requires a massive security presence, given the threats facing those carrying out the pilgrimage.

Major General Mansour al-Turki said: ‘We always concentrate on Hajj considering that a threat might exist.

‘We’ve been targeted by terrorism for years now and we know that we are a target for terrorist groups.’

Speaking from the Interior Ministry’s security headquarters for the Hajj, which is located in the sprawling tent city of Mina just a few miles outside the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Members of an elite counterterrorism unit, traffic police and emergency civil defense personnel are among those deployed to help with crowd control and safety.

They are supported by additional troops from the army and national guard, al-Turki said.

Inside the Interior Ministry’s nerve center, police monitor dozens of screens with feeds from about 5,000 CCTV cameras installed throughout Mecca and Medina, the two cities frequented by pilgrims.

‘We’re active, we’re awake,’ al-Turki said, referring to the security forces’ readiness to deal with any eventuality.

Civil defense emergency personnel were among the first responders when a crane collapsed at the Grand Mosque on September 11, killing 111 people and injuring nearly 400 others who had come for the Hajj.

Authorities blamed the collapse on high winds and the contractor was faulted for not following operating procedures.

On Thursday, the kingdom’s military and police put on a parade in Mecca, with security forces jumping through burning hoops and thwarting a mock terrorist attack.

The show was aimed at deterring any would-be troublemakers, and was attended by Crown Prince and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, who himself was the target of a terrorist attack in 2009.

Saudi Arabia’s custodianship of holy sites in Mecca and Medina has long made the kingdom a target of terrorist groups who want to wrestle control of them from the kingdom’s Western-allied monarchy.a