Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from within Ereẓ Israel, as well as from the Diaspora, streamed to the Temple at each of the three festivals. The pilgrimage affected the life of every Jew, who might have to prepare for the occasion, and the journey and the accompanying sacrifices involved a not inconsiderable financial outlay. The inspiration derived from "the sojourn in the Temple courts," and from attendance at the rabbinical academies in Jerusalem, remained a powerful stimulus to the pilgrim after his return: "His heart prompts him to study Torah" (TJ, Suk. 5:1, 55a). Many of the new trends in Jewish spiritual life were ventilated in Jerusalem, and the pilgrim served as the vehicle for disseminating the ideas that were in constant ferment during the period. The pilgrimage had a considerable influence upon the life of the capital in a number of spheres; in the social sphere, from the presence there of Jews from every part of the Diaspora, and in the economic, from the vast sums spent by the thousands of pilgrims both for their own needs and on charity. It also had a national-political influence. The aliyah from all parts of Ereẓ Israel and the Diaspora strengthened the consciousness of national and social solidarity (Jos., Ant. 4:203–4). This national consciousness reached a new peak with the presence of the throngs of pilgrims in Jerusalem and made them even more sensitive to the humiliation entailed in their subjection to a foreign yoke. As a result of this sensitivity disorders and revolts were of frequent occurrence in Jerusalem during the festivals (Jos., Wars 5:243–4; Ant. 13:337–9).
Safrai, Shmuel, et al. "Pilgrimage." Encyclopaedia Judaica, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 16, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, pp. 154-158. Encyclopedia Judaica, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2587515768/GVRL.judaica?u=grjc&sid=bookmark-GVRL.judaica&xid=43dbb4c1. Accessed 18 July 2022.

A fifth-century testimony reported a pilgrimage of over 100,000 Jews, made possible as a result of the sympathetic attitude of Anthenais Eudocia, wife of the emperor Theodosius II.
These pilgrimages continued throughout the Middle Ages, although on many occasions the Jewish pilgrims were subject to taxes and discriminatory regulations which were enacted against them by the Christian or Muslim overlords of the holy places. The ninth-century pilgrimages of Rabbi *Ahimaaz the Elder, of Venosa, Italy, are well known. The Persian traveler Nāṣir Khosraw (1047) stated that he saw Jews from Roman lands (Byzantium) coming to visit their houses of worship. The testimony of a pilgrim from Babylonia, Phinehas ha-Kohen (c. 1030), has also survived.
After Ereẓ Israel was conquered by the Muslims under Saladin (1187), the Jews were once again permitted to visit their holy places freely. Numerous pilgrims came from Damascus, Babylonia, and Egypt, and they remained in Jerusalem over Passover and Shavuot. Naḥmanides, in a letter to his son, wrote: "Many men and women from Damascus, Babylon, and their vicinities come to Jerusalem to see the site of the Holy Temple and to lament its destruction."
Ibid.