Qualla: Jamaraat Bridge https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Jamaraat Bridge https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge Jamaraat Bridge: Introduction https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Keith Still, the British crowd scientist who was consulted on the bridge's redesign, once put the problem this way: the Jamaraat Bridge can move five hundred thousand people an hour. That is a full-capacity football stadium every twenty-four minutes, or the entire population of Germany in a week. For most of its life, the bridge could not move enough. Pilgrims arrived faster than they could leave. Crowds compressed against themselves. And in 1994, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2006, pilgrims died in the valley of Mina because the geometry of a concrete ramp and three pillars could not bear the weight of human faith.

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/sgu3-jamaraat-bridge-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Jamaraat Bridge: The Ritual and the Bridge https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. The stones are small, pebble-sized, gathered the night before at Muzdalifah. In the final days of the Hajj, pilgrims cast them at three pillars called the jamarat, reenacting Ibrahim's stoning of Shaytan in the Islamic tradition of the patriarch's trial. The pillars themselves ar...

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/sgu3-jamaraat-bridge-the-ritual-and-the-bridge.mp3 0:06 2 full Jamaraat Bridge: The Names of the Dead https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 23 May 1994, at least 270 pilgrims died in a stampede. On 9 April 1998, another 118 were trampled, 180 more injured. On 5 March 2001, 35. On 11 February 2003, 14. On 1 February 2004, 251 killed and 244 injured. On 12 January 2006, at least 346 more deaths. And then, on 24 Sept...

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Image: Aiman titi | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/sgu3-jamaraat-bridge-the-names-of-the-dead.mp3 0:06 3 full Jamaraat Bridge: Redesigning a Sacred Bottleneck https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. After the 2004 crush, Saudi authorities turned to engineers and crowd scientists, including Keith Still at Manchester Metropolitan University and Edwin Galea at the University of Greenwich. The old bridge was demolished in 2006, and a new multi-level structure, designed by Dar Al...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/sgu3-jamaraat-bridge-redesigning-a-sacred-bottleneck.mp3 0:06 4 full Jamaraat Bridge: The Limits of Engineering https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Still's warning from the beginning was that the bridge was only one point in a system. You can make the bottleneck wider, but if the valley of Mina that feeds it has not also been redesigned, the crowd simply jams somewhere else. That prediction came true in 2015, when the disast...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/sgu3-jamaraat-bridge-the-limits-of-engineering.mp3 0:06 5 full Jamaraat Bridge: What the Bridge Is Now https://qualla.com/jamaraat-bridge/ Photo credit Aiman titi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the Jamaraat Bridge is a vast, column-free structure, four levels high, air-conditioned in places, fitted with emergency exits and evacuation ramps. At the height of the Hajj it still moves enormous crowds, now more smoothly than before. Pilgrims arrive on dedicated metro l...

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]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/g/u/3/jamaraat-bridge-wp/sgu3-jamaraat-bridge-what-the-bridge-is-now.mp3 0:06 6 full