Pilgrims did their best to cope with the difficult conditions, and for many it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to pray at Islam's holiest shrines.
“It's very physically demanding, but spiritually very uplifting. For me, I was in awe all the time,” said Canadian Niron Khan, 49.
“I was in a state of heat exhaustion during the pilgrimage,” she said.
“But I had to keep going because we were surrounded by everybody. And we just had to keep going.”
According to the official Saudi Press Agency, 225 cases of heat stress and fatigue have so far been reported at a treatment center near Mount Arafat.
“It was very, very hot,” Rohi Daseka, a 60-year-old Gambian living in the United States, told AFP on Saturday night as pilgrims gathered to throw stones.
“Alhamdulillah (praise be to God), I poured a lot of water on my head and it was cured.”
Amal Mahrous, a 55-year-old Egyptian woman, said she was happy beyond words and that the Hajj had shown that “we are all the same, there are no differences between Muslims around the world.”
The Hajj, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, must be performed at least once by all Muslims.
This year's number of 1.8 million pilgrims is similar to last year, and Saudi officials said on Saturday that 1.6 million of them came from abroad.
These included 17,500 Syrians, according to Badreddin Mansour, director of a Saudi agency specializing in the pilgrimage.
The hajj has long been out of reach for Syrians living in government-controlled areas, but the reintegration of President Bashar al-Assad's government into the Arab region last year has made direct flights for the pilgrimage possible.
For Ghada Rifai, a 60-year-old retired teacher from Damascus, it meant “a dream come true.”