With ice cream and giant fans, hajj pilgrims battle searing heat<br />

“To avoid the punishing sun, Inas Gamal abandoned her ambitious plan of spending the days ahead of the hajj praying in Mecca's Grand Mosque and retreated to the comfort of an air-conditioned hotel room to perform her daytime prayers. Despite travelling all the way from Egypt for the annual pilgrimage, Gamal said it was just too hot to spend much time outside during the day, where temperatures crossed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). "It's very hot, much hotter than I imagined," the mother of four, who is performing the hajj for the first time, told AFP.

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