Approximately 15,000 cameras are placed across the holy city of Mecca and its environs by Saudi officials. These cameras are outfitted with sophisticated software that can identify irregularities in crowd movements and predict traffic jams. This guarantees efficient crowd flow and helps avert possible mishaps.
In addition to tracking more than 20,000 busses that carry pilgrims between the several holy locations, this state-of-the-art technology makes transportation more coordinated and effective.
Saudi Arabia uses these technology as part of an integrated system to oversee one of the biggest religious gatherings in the world, with some 1.4 million pilgrims expected to converge in Mecca this year.
The system's main goals are to improve travel routes, reduce pedestrian-vehicular accidents, and relieve pilgrims from trekking for extended periods of time in the blazing sun. Almost 17,000 buses run to transport pilgrims to the sacred locations during the busiest time of the year,
The Saudi government has deployed a new fleet of drones with sophisticated cameras that continuously scan the Mecca entrances in order to identify unregistered pilgrims.
In a recent video, the Saudi Special Forces for Road Security demonstrated how they are improving security capabilities by using clever thermal cameras to monitor the holy sites and the outer perimeter of Mecca.
