The Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites has announced that buses serving visitors to and from the Grand Mosque carried more than 64 million passengers during Ramadan 1447 AH. More than 2,600 buses operated 1.5 million journeys through seven central stations. Meanwhile, visits to the miqat sites and mosques outside the sacred boundary totalled around four million.
The commission said the Ramadan figures reflect the integration of service systems in Makkah to manage pilgrim movements and facilitate access to the Grand Mosque during one of the year’s busiest visitor seasons, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Chief executive Saleh bin Ibrahim Al-Rasheed said managing visitor movements during Ramadan involves an integrated operating system based on coordination between the relevant authorities and the provision of services supporting transport and access to the Grand Mosque at peak times.
The transport system overseen by the General Transport Center helped organise pilgrim flows to the central area and ease congestion on roads leading to the Grand Mosque. Average station clearance times during peak periods fell below 60 minutes, approximately 21% lower than in the previous Ramadan.
Transport within Makkah was also busy. Makkah Bus carried more than 2.2 million passengers on over 85,000 journeys, while Makkah Taxi completed more than 51,000 trips, supporting movement between neighbourhoods and the central area.
Al-Rasheed said the miqat sites and mosques outside the sacred boundary serve as the first points for organising Umrah pilgrims’ flow into Makkah. Their four million visitors were distributed across sites including Al-Sail Al-Kabeer, Yalamlam, Al-Taneem Mosque, Al-Jiranah Mosque, Wadi Mahram and Al-Juhfah.
For visitor enrichment, Makkah’s historical and cultural sites welcomed more than 15,000 visitors across 14 locations. These included Hira Cultural District, the Prophet’s Biography Museum, the Revelation Exhibition, the Holy Quran Museum and other historical landmarks.
The commission also brought prayer areas surrounding the Grand Mosque into use as part of its project to extend worshippers’ rows. Four prayer areas accommodated more than 850,000 worshippers during Ramadan, helping ease crowding inside the mosque and provide organised prayer spaces nearby.
To read the Saudi Press Agency report, click here.
