The annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca takes place from tomorrow to Sunday, with some 2.5 million or more Muslim faithful expected from all over the world.

The Saudi government might manage the hajj , but the people who make it run for two million or more pilgrims are a handful of old Mecca families who monopolise the muttawif or hajj guide business.

Organised into six companies, each taking care of pilgrims from a specific part of the world, they make sure the people who have waited a lifetime to perform the hajj get through it.

Key numbers for the hajj this year:

• An estimated two million foreign pilgrims are expected to take part, while pilgrims from inside Saudi Arabia are forecast at 500,000.

• The biggest hajj contingent is from Indonesia - 200,000 - while India is sending 164,000 and Pakistan about 140,000.

• Saudi Arabia is deploying some 100,000 security forces in and around Mecca, Medina and Jeddah for the hajj. From a massive command centre they monitor thousands of CCTV cameras, including 1,852 in and around Mecca's Grand Mosque, and 600 at the Jamarat bridge where pilgrims stone the devil.

• Health personnel have been increased this year to 20,000 to cope with the threat of swine flu in addition to other health worries.

• The Grand Mosque at the centre of Mecca, where pilgrims gather to pray and circle the cubic Kaaba building, covers 39 hectares and can hold more than one million people.

• The Kaaba rests on a marble base and is built from granite, and has a door made from 280 kilos of pure gold. The black silk kiswa covering, made anew every year, is embroidered with holy phrases using 150 kilos of gold and silver thread.