Social media was abuzz with videos showing an infestation of unidentified bugs at the Great Mosque, the holiest mosque in all of Islam. It is the focus of the hajj, the pilgrimage, which draws millions of Muslims a year to Saudi Arabia. The swarm went unreported on Al Arabiya and other Arab media. The bugs appeared after an unseasonal rain that fell four days ago during Umrah, a lesser pilgrimage festival.
A video shared by the Mecca region’s official Twitter page, showed pilgrims performing the tawaf, when Muslims circumambulate the Kaaba, while others seized the moment to stand in the rain and pray in front of the Kaaba.
أمطار 🌧️ 19 رمضان
📸: رائد العفيفي pic.twitter.com/nNk5CdPrD5
— إمارة منطقة مكة المكرمة (@makkahregion) April 10, 2023
Videos posted after the rainstorm showed thousands of black bugs crawling on the white stone floor of the mosque. The videos identified the bugs as both cockroaches and grasshoppers. Video closeups appear to show lonjg-legged grasshoppers.
@dilkay1982 #fypシ #mecca #mosque #forgiveness #yaallah #dua ♬ original sound – 𝓓𝓲𝓵𝓴𝓪𝔂
A similar “plague of locusts” hit the Great Mosque in Mecca in January 2019.
