Mount Arafat

This guide to Mount Arafat outside Mecca centers on the one day of Hajj when two million pilgrims, dressed alike with no rank between them, gather on this granite hill for wuquf, standing in prayer from noon until sunset. It traces why Islamic teaching holds that missing this hill on the ninth of Dhul Hijjah voids an entire pilgrimage, and revisits the year six hundred thirty-two, when the Prophet Muhammad addressed the crowds below and declared every human equal. Look for the point where the plain meets the hill, where scholars say the whole ritual turns.