Owing to the current violent situation, many pilgrims were avoiding the Holy City, imposing further economic difficulties on the population.

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.

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

Pilgrim apos s Rest, Kataragama

I am on a pilgrimage.

We are on a pilgrimage.

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

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.

You brag about being a pilgrim apostle.

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

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.

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.

Although religious shrines in Jerusalem were open to pilgrims, local Palestinians were unable to attend religious services in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

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

Saudi Arabia s Pilgrimage to Pakistan

These are not servants. These are worshippers.

Many pilgrims say they will not be cowed.

The new arrangements regulating access to the shrine provide that the shrine should remain strictly a place of worship, with no additions or alterations.

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.

Women are forbidden to travel alone, even on pilgrimage.

The restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement in connection with the introduction of the isolation policy had also limited access by worshippers to Moslem and Christian holy sites, especially in Jerusalem.

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.

The St. Helena Tourist Office has been boosting its efforts to market St. Helena as a tourist destination.

Lourdes prepares for pilgrims in shadow of attacks

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,

Visits to the shrine require coordination by the Palestinian Israeli Liaison Bureau.

Pursuant to a Decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan of 22 August 2003, 15 locations  religious complexes, places of pilgrimage and burial sites have been placed under the authority of the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan.

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.

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

He himself said this would be his last pilgrimage to Our Lady at Czestochowa.

By getting off at Sante Fe and returning by way of Amarillo... you should be able to get right where you're going.

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.

Indeed, since taking control of Mecca, the Saudi government has used the city and the hajj as centerpieces in its efforts to place the kingdom at the center of the Muslim world and spread Wahhabi Islam. As soon as the Saudi royal family seized the city, the new rulers destroyed the Shia and Sufi shrines that might have undermined their sought after monopoly over the ritual aspects of the pilgrimage.

...will become the shrine of al those millions upon millions who find a rallying point for their expression of God's will.

And with the blessing of Trulshik Rinpoche, we began a pilgrimage to a curious destination, accompanied by a great doctor.

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.

It is really a sacred space.

As all delegations have just witnessed, the South Korean authorities are still inciting confrontation between the north and the south of Korea, even at this sacred forum of the United Nations.

The case was currently before the second Military Court of Santiago.

The head of the local hotel workers' union, Christian Gelis, confirmed signs of increased interest in the pilgrimage in the wake of the attacks.

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.