(Adds description of Mina encampment, paragraphs 5 and 6)
By Jonathan Wright
MINA, Saudi Arabia, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Muslim pilgrims threw pebbles at a stone wall outside Mecca, shaved their heads and bought sacrificial animals on Wednesday, the third day of the annual haj pilgrimage to the Mecca area.
Many arrived for the pebble-throwing ritual with swollen feet and sore legs after walking about 20 km (12 miles) during the night, stopping for a few hours of sleep in the rough in the Muzdalifa area, where they collected at least 49 small stones.
They were coming from the plain of Arafat, where the haj reached its climax on Tuesday afternoon, a period of waiting and private prayer.
On Wednesday most settled in for a two-night stay in the Mina area and the atmosphere was more festive than devotional. The day is the first day of Eid al-Adha, the feast of the sacrifice.
The Saudi government has built a vast tent city on every available piece of flat land around Mina but some pilgrims prefer to camp in the rocky hills or by the side of the road.
After the three main duties, many male pilgrims took off the two pieces of white cloth they put on when they entered a state of ritual purity on Monday morning.
The stone-throwing ritual has been the most dangerous stage in an event which has seen a series of tragic accidents in recent years, as easy air travel and increasing prosperity add to the pressure on Saudi Arabia to grant more pilgrim visas.
More than 1.6 million people entered Saudi Arabia for the event this year, about the same as last year. With pilgrims from inside the country -- Saudi and foreign workers -- the total number is well over 2 million; some Saudi media said 3 million.
On Wednesday pilgrims had the choice of three walkways to approach the stone and concrete wall, a modernised version of what used to be a stone pillar. The ritual represents defiance of the devil and commitment to resisting his temptations.
The Saudi authorities have added the two upper levels to relieve crowding on the ground level, where 362 pilgrims died in the crush in January 2006, the worst haj tragedy in 16 years.
In previous years the haj has seen fires, hotel collapses, police clashes with protesters trying to politicise the event and deadly stampedes caused by overcrowding.
VEHCILES AND PEDESTRIANS
Saudi media said hundreds of thousands of people had moved smoothly across the Jamarat Bridge throughout the day on Wednesday without incident. But not all the pilgrims were happy.
Fadel Marhoon, an Islamic studies teacher from Bahrain, said the new walls or pillars, known in Arabic as the jamarat, were so big that pilgrims often threw their stones from afar, endangering those in front of them.
"If you go close and then turn back when you're finished, you might get hit in the face," he said.
Abbas Mubarak, a Shi'ite Muslim from Ahsa in eastern Saudi Arabia, said Shi'ites had to cope with the most severe crowding at the lower level because their clerics have decreed that throwing pebbles from the upper levels does not count.
The two pilgrims criticised the crowding of vehicles in the Muzdalifa area overnight, which made it hard for pedestrians to walk towards Mecca. Drivers had trouble too, some spending 12 hours between Arafat and Mina.
At Mina, barbers set up shop in the street to shave the heads of the most enthusiastic pilgrims. Other pilgrims made do with a severe haircut.
Most pilgrims do not see the animals they buy for slaughter. They buy a coupon from a kiosk and trust that the Saudi authorities will oversee the process of killing the beast and shipping it abroad for distribution to the poor. Sheep, cows and camels are the usual choices.
This year the jamarat opened at midnight and some pilgrims reached Mecca in the early hours of the morning. There they carried out the same rituals they performed earlier in the process -- walking seven times around the stone shrine called the Kaaba and seven times along a nearby walkway.
They have to go back to the jamarat on Thursday and Friday for further stoning ceremonies. (Editing by Elizabeth Piper)
