Hundreds of Jewish worshippers flocked to Africa's oldest synagogue in Tunisia on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, reviving an annual pilgrimage after a two-year hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to AFP.

Pilgrims passed through airport-style scanners and passed a heavy, armed police guard to enter the whitewashed Ghriba synagogue on the southern Tunisian resort island of Djerba.

Inside, they lit candles, prayed and handed each other sweets and nuts.

Many took photos and filmed relatives and friends inside the intricately decorated synagogue. Others sat praying or reading scripture on their own, before leaving with their friends and family.

The pilgrimage marks the Lag BaOmer festival, which starts 33 days after the start of the Jewish Passover.

Djerba is home to one of the last Jewish communities in the Arab world, and the synagogue is believed to date to the sixth century BC.

The community is still recovering from a suicide bombing claimed by Al-Qaeda at the synagogue in 2002 that killed 21 people.

Before that, some 8,000 pilgrims used to travel to Djerba for the annual celebration.

The number plunged afterwards but had since recovered somewhat -- until the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

Last year a pilgrimage was held but with much reduced numbers and strict sanitary conditions.