The Maha Kumbh Mela is one of the largest religious gatherings on Earth. It is a Hindu pilgrimage festival that occurs every 12 years. The 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, held in Prayagraj, was particularly significant because it was a “Maha Kumbh”, an event that takes place only once every 144 years, due to a rare celestial alignment.
During the 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela, an estimated 663 million pilgrimages were made over a 45-day period. That’s equivalent to the combined populations of Russia, Japan, Vietnam, Brazil, Italy, and Australia. In fact, according to Reuters, “If this amount of people formed their own country, they would be the third largest behind China and India.”
It’s hard to envision the sheer number of people who attended this year’s Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. However, Reuters attempted to visualize it. In their feature Faith in numbers: The unprecedented scale of India’s Maha Kumbh festival, the news agency used satellite imagery to explore the vast site of the gathering. The imagery takes viewers on a visual tour of the Ganges River and several key pilgrimage locations - including the site where 30 pilgrims tragically lost their lives in a stampede on January 29.
Reuters also uses flower petals as a creative way to illustrate the massive scale of attendance. During the festival, flower petals are traditionally showered on devotees and used to welcome spiritual leaders. In Reuters’ visualization, one petal represents 10,000 people. These petals are grouped into squares, each symbolizing 1 million people, to represent the 663 million pilgrimages. Let’s just say - it takes quite a bit of scrolling to see the full 663 million in the Reuters' visualization.
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