Neil Dauxois, 26, walked from his home in France to the Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. He walked 3,900 kilometers in ten months to pray in the mosque during Ramadan.
Dauxois crossed ten countries during his journey. He walked through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Jordan to reach the mosque in Jerusalem.
Once in East Jerusalem, he received a warm welcome from the Palestinian Muslims who visited Al Aqsa Mosque to pray. “People welcomed me with genuine hospitality,” he told the Turkish news agency Anadolu Agency. “I am very happy to be here and cannot express my joy in words.”
Dauxois says his extraordinary journey was “very doable at times, but also very difficult at times”. “Without helpful and friendly people I would never have managed to cover this distance on foot,” he emphasizes.
Especially in Turkey, the French-Algerian Muslim received a lot of help. In the countries where people were less friendly, he had a harder time. His walking tour also became more difficult in places where it was cold.
His next goal is to walk to Saudi Arabia for the Islamic pilgrimage. Dauxois wants to cover the distance between East Jerusalem and Mecca within a month and a half. “I hope for support from the Saudis so that I reach my destination safely.”
