Lourdes attracts around six million people a year, making it one of the biggest sites of Catholic pilgrimage in the world.

People gather during the annual Catholic pilgrimage at the sanctuary of Notre Dame de Lourdes.

Since independence alone, over 45,000 have been given assistance to make hajj pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia, and over 150 have been given assistance to make pilgrimages to Christian and Jewish holy sites in Russia, Greece and Israel.

Many pilgrims say they will not be cowed.

Saudi Arabia s Pilgrimage to Pakistan

On 10 and 11 June, the military and police components of the mission assisted 1,000 Greek Cypriots to make a pilgrimage to the Church of Saint Barnabas near Famagusta for the first time in 31 years.

Lourdes prepares for pilgrims in shadow of attacks

Then, as now, there was little local effort to limit the number of pilgrims to safe levels or to provide adequate infrastructure and security to handle the masses of visitors. Annual influxes of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims closely packed into steamships were blamed for spreading cholera through port cities from Bombay to Hamburg, making the hajj a major cause of death around the world.

Now, they're 13 miles up the road in Santa Ana.

Outbound movements of 26,000 Afghan pilgrims to Saudi Arabia occurred without incident.

But it won't affect the quality and depth of what they experience, he assured.

Even so, it maintains strenuous efforts to attract pilgrims particularly wealthy ones by building attractions, including vast shopping malls and a colossal copy of London s Big Ben that now looms incongruously over the Ka ba. And the authorities admission of more pilgrims than the city s infrastructure can safely handle is indisputable the proof is repeated disasters like the one in September.

Furthermore, the authorities of the Republic of Uzbekistan provide all kinds of assistance to pilgrims travelling to holy sites Muslims going to Saudi Arabia to perform umra and hajj, Christians going to Russia, Greece and Israel, and Jews going to Israel.

ISAF has monitored the hajj and has provided security support in that context.

The pilgrims come here by the hundreds of thousands they're not going to get in trucks and buses and go down there.

So he came from the chamber to his people, and suggested to them (by signs) to sing the praises of the Lord morning and evening.

He therefore emerged upon his people from the mosque, and told them through gestures, Keep proclaiming the Purity (of your Lord) morning and evening.

So he came forth unto his people from the Sanctuary, then he made signal to them, 'Give you glory at dawn and evening.'

Then he came forth to his people from the sanctuary, and he beckoned unto them. hallow your Lord morning and evening.

Then he came out to his people from Al Mihrab (a praying place or a private room, etc.), he told them by signs to glorify Allah's Praises in the morning and in the afternoon.

And he came out to his people, from the sanctuary, and signaled to them to praise morning and evening.

Thereupon Zechariah came out from the sanctuary and directed his people by gestures to extol His glory by day and by night.

Then he came forth unto his people from the sanctuary, and signified to them Glorify your Lord at break of day and fall of night.

So he emerged before his people from the Temple, and signalled to them that they should glorify Allah morning and evening.

Then he came out from the Sanctuary to his nation, and gestured to them to exalt (their Lord) at the dawn and at the evening.

So he came out to his people from the prayer chamber and signaled to them to exalt Allah in the morning and afternoon.

Zachariah came out to his people from place of worship and inspired them to glorify the Lord both in the morning and evening.

So he went forth to his people from his place of worship, then he made known to them that they should glorify (Allah) morning and evening.

Then Zachariah came forth from the shrine to his people and told them by signs to glorify the Lord morning and evening.

So Zakariya came out to his people from him chamber He told them by signs to celebrate Allah's praises in the morning and in the evening.

Some are to Koranic prophets even older than Muhammad others are to Shia imams or Sufi saints and still others are to hallowed Muslim women. The name of one holy place, the necropolis of Makli in Pakistan, hints at its medieval ambition to become an alternative destination for pilgrims Makli means the little Mecca.

Welcoming also the historic Jubilee 2000 pilgrimage of His Holiness Pope John Paul II to the Holy Land, his landmark visit to the holy sites in Bethlehem and the important message delivered by the Pontiff at Manger Square,

Not simply to the flanks of the mountains, but to the very iced peaks which are the destiny of the pilgrims.

You can show a mosque, or you can show worshippers, but there's not a straightforward way of depicting Islam.

Then there's the point of embarkation, that is, the point of transition from ordinary life to being a pilgrim on a quest.

The current situation of continual violence had prevented pilgrims from visiting the holy places, and the worsening living conditions and the lack of access to shrines and places of worship were causing the Christian population to emigrate to other countries.

It is not uncommon for pilgrims from, say, India or Indonesia to adopt strict, conservative tenets after their return from Mecca. As influence is ultimately a matter of numbers, it should come as no surprise that the Saudis seek to maximize the inflows of Muslim pilgrims each year.

It would be a pilgrimage to get to it it would be a serious hike to get up to where the clock is.

On 1 and 2 September, UNFICYP facilitated the visit of over 900 Greek Cypriots to the St. Mamas Church in Morphou and provided assistance to 330 Turkish Cypriots to make a pilgrimage to Kokkina in the western part of Cyprus.

With tourist arrivals in the country plummeting, authorities had worried that the number of visitors to this year's pilgrimage would be sharply down.

Religious tourism played a central role in the region s nineteenth century economy (until the arrival of Texas oilmen in the 1930s, Mecca was almost entirely dependent on visiting pilgrims). But the numbers of visitors began to rise sharply after the city fell under the control of the Saudi royal family in 1924.

French security forces are on high alert as thousands of Catholics converge on the shrine of Lourdes for an annual pilgrimage unfolding in the shadow of a string of terror attacks.

Key airports of debarkation for mass pilgrim movements were KAIA, Mazar e Sharif, Herat and Kandahar.

Doing so would not only reduce the number of pilgrims traveling to Mecca, making the visits safer it would also force Saudi Arabia to share the enormous profits of religious tourism.

During the last six months, UNDOF assisted in the crossing of 480 students and 488 religious pilgrims and provided protection at one wedding.