On having returned from Mecca, northern Nigerian women and men pilgrims often have their photographs taken in which they wear garments and display objects-referred to as kayan Mecca, things from Mecca-which they acquired while on hajj. These photographs, which are kept in family albums, serve to commemorate people's performance of hajj and serve as a visual link that connects pilgrims living in northern Nigeria with the holy city of Mecca. Furthermore, the ephemeral, fleeting quality of travel is made concrete through these photographs of people and hajj things, with the photographs themselves-their composition and their sometimes scenic backdrops of roads and buildings-becoming part of the repertoire of performing hajj itself. Thus the photographs become part of another set of things, like special caps and commemorative cloths, which mark an individual's attainment of the status of alhaji or hajiya. While other travel photographs, for example those taken by military men and colonial administrators as well as tourists in Africa, serve a similar purpose of documenting a temporary presence in a particular place and evidence of a specific social status, the objective of these hajj photographs differs as those portrayed seek to place themselves within a world religious community, using photographs to reinforce their spatial connections.