page_title: Tent city
section_title: Hajj
hierarchical_section_title: Tent city / Events / Hajj
caption_attribution_description: Photo from mountainside of the tented areas covering the Plain of Mina, Saudi Arabia
context_page_description: A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures.
  State governments or military organizations set up tent cities to house evacuees, refugees, or soldiers. UNICEF's Supply Division supplies expandable tents for millions of displaced people.
  Informal tent cities may be set up without authorization by homeless people or protesters.
  Tent cities set up by homeless people may be similar to shanty towns, which are informal settlements in which the buildings are made from scrap building materials.
context_section_description: The Saudi Arabian government's Ministry of Hajj has set up a permanent tent city to house Muslim pilgrims in Mina, where the ritual Stoning of the Devil takes place as part of the overall Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. A tent city is also set up at Mount Arafat, another essential stop during the Hajj. Because up to four million pilgrims may be performing the Hajj annually, the tent cities are densely inhabited with 20-40 people per tent. As such, fire and disease outbreaks were constant concerns. Since the late 1990s, Saudi authorities have started using fireproof tents to reduce the risks of a major fire.
caption: Mina, tent city
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