Call to Prayer

Five times a day it happens, everywhere in Morocco, where the population is more than 95% Islamic. Where we stayed in Essouria the loudspeaker for the mosque was right outside our window.  The loud and distorted voice of the Imam was a bit of a disturbance at 5AM.

Now we are in Fes, with it's incredibly crowded Medina (meaning "city", and in this case the old city) and correspondingly high density of mosques, each with a square minaret sticking above the rooftops, each with its own call to prayer. From the roof top terrace of our riad we can see out over the Medina, the minarets and the (many, many) satellite dishes.

The full moon rises over the eastern hills , interrupting our conversation with Josef, from Barcelona, our new best friend. We gaze in silence as the orb slides into the sky. Our conversation resumes, but is interrupted again as the call to prayer starts suddenly, from a dozen places at once. Josef says, "This is a sacred moment!", and we listen in a whole new way as the voices echo and rebound off the hills.

One of the many minarets in the Fez Medina

View from the roof

All for now

P&P