In the late Ayyubid period (mid- AH 7th / AD 13th century), pilgrims from Egypt and North Africa began to use the land routes. It is said that Sultana Shajar al-Durr, the widow of the last Ayyubid ruler of Egypt, decreed in 645 / 1247 that she should travel overland in fulfilment of her religious duty of pilgrimage. As a result she is regarded as the first to inaugurate the Hajj route overland. From the period of the Mamluk sultan al-Zahir Baybars, this became the official pilgrimage route, Baybars having dispatched a state-sponsored Hajj caravan with the specially commissioned kiswa (a cover) for the Ka'ba along with the key. The Hajj caravan set off from Suez and proceeded to Aqaba where it met up with Hajj caravans arriving from Bilad al-Sham.