Security personnels stands to guard as the first batch of Amarnath pilgrims to leave for Amarnath Yatra, an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine, on July 1, 2016 in Jammu, India. Thousands of Hindu pilgrims begin an annual pilgrimage on 01 July to the shrine, an icy stalagmite in a mountain cave 4,115 meters (13,500 feet high) above sea level. Hindus worship the stalagmite as an incarnation of the Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.