Up to 25,000 British Muslims travel annually to Makkah and its’ environs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the great Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj. As the fifth pillar (arkan) of Islam, the pilgrimage returns Muslims to the birthplace of their faith and is a duty once in their lifetime, so long as they have the health and wealth to do so. But how have the social, cultural, religious, economic and political dimensions of the pilgrimage been transformed in the late modern age?