Today is the last chance for pilgrims to leave for Mecca

Today is the last chance for pilgrims to make the decision and to go to Mecca because the tourist companies, engaged in hadj organization, finish the registration of the pilgrim’s documents and this is connected with the terms of work of Saudi Arabia’s Hadj Ministry and the Russian Embassy in this country.

About 200 people from Bashkortostan will leave for Mecca in 2009. 85 pilgrims have chosen the variants of the hadj-mission, offered by the tourist agency “AIRA-TOUR”, which is busy with hadj organization for citizens RB for nine years. The cost of the tour makes about 80 thousand rubles and at that the pilgrims will travel by air on the airplanes of “Turkish Airlines” to Jordan along the route Ufa-Istanbul-Amman and from Amman they will be send to Mecca by buses. The flights from Ufa will take place on November 14 and 16. The pilgrims will return home on December 6.

The General Director of “AIRA-TOUR” Marina Belyaeva reports the number of the pilgrims this year remains at the level of last year. The Muslims, wishing to visit the holy places, aren’t afraid of either the economic crisis or the spreading of the “pig flu” virus A (H1N1).

“Many of our clients go to make the hadj not for the first time” – Marina Belyaeva informed – “The youngest pilgrim is 16 and the oldest – 82”.

Along with “AIRA-TOUR” the interregional pilgrimage center “IDEL-HADJ” is also engaged in organization of hadj travels – it offers several tours with the cost from 75 to 140 thousand rubles.

Along with the pilgrims from Bashkortostan about 20 thousand Russians are going to leave for hadj this year. Thus, about three thousand people will go to Mecca from the neighboring regions, including 500 citizens of Tatarstan.