Assessment and improvement on thermal conditions inside pilgrimage tents at Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The overheating problem experienced during Islamic pilgrimage in recent years has caused serious thermal discomfort and a number of mortalities among pilgrims coming from various parts of the world to perform the annual event at Makkah in Saudi Arabia. This research aims to investigate the real dimension of thermal discomfort experienced inside the pilgrimage tents. The back bone of this task was the data collected from the field investigations during the Hajj season of 1989, including climatic measurements taken inside the tents for the first time during the Hajj season. The investigations also included a subjective evaluation for internal thermal conditions by the pilgrims from Europe, the Middle East, and South East Asia. This research also attempts to identify passive and natural cooling guidelines that are applicable to the tent's design. The author tested sets of experiments aimed to measure the thermal effects of some of the natural cooling techniques on pilgrimage tents at Makkah. The research concludes with design guidelines to improve the thermal quality of the pilgrimage tent. The recommended guidelines were based on the experimental results and practical examples of cooling strategies applied to tents in similar hot climates.