Muslim pilgrims pray at desert mountain

MOUNT ARAFAT, Saudi Arabia - Hundreds of thousands of Muslims prayed Friday on the desert mountain where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon, seeking forgiveness of their sins in a key ritual of the annual hajj pilgrimage.

Nearly 3 million pilgrims flooded into a sprawling tent city at Mount Arafat, outside the holy city of Mecca. Lines of buses, with pilgrims riding on the roofs, packed highways leading into the site, while others on foot swarmed between the vehicles.

Even before sunrise, lines of pilgrims made their way up Jebal Rahmah, Arabic for "mountain of mercy," to perform prayers on the rocky hill on the edge of the site. A group of Indonesian women clambered with difficulty over the boulders, past handless beggars asking for alms. At the top, crowds raised their palms toward the sky as tour leaders with loudspeakers led them in prayer.

The prayers at Mount Arafat are the first major rite in the five-day hajj, which began Thursday. The faithful spend the day in prayer and meditation and reading the Quran. After sunset Friday, the pilgrims were to move once again — to the nearby plain of Muzdalifah, where they will spend the night and pick stones for the next major rite: the symbolic stoning of the devil.

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