“The number of foreign visitors that arrived in the country reached 3,445,627 since 6th of August until yesterday,” Alaaldin al-Qaisi, spokesperson for Iraq’s border ports authority, told state media.
The Shiite Muslim Arbaeen pilgrimage marks the end of a 40-day mourning period for the grandson of Prophet Mohammed, Imam Hussein, who died in a battle fought in Karbala in 680 AD.
Millions of religious tourists from Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait, and especially Iraq’s Shiite-majority neighbor Iran journey to Iraq for a symbolic 80-kilometer walk from Najaf to Karbala - both Shiite holy cities.
Qaisi clarified that the number included pilgrims who entered through border crossings and airports, both into federal Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
The Arbaeen walk begins in Ras al-Bishah, near Iraq’s southern borders with Iran and Kuwait, near the Gulf. Pilgrims customarily dress in black, march through the streets, and often self-flagellate with chains and wood. The walk ends at the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala.
The mourning of the Imam’s death is one of the most important rituals in Shiite Islam.
