At the end of the eponymously-named avenue running west from the Jemaa El-Fnaa stood the Koutoubia mosque. As an active place of worship for Muslims, anyone within earshot would hear the muezzin’s five daily adhans (Islamic “call to prayer”) broadcasted through the loudspeakers nestled in the windows of the ornate minaret. It is one thing to hear the call echoing in the background of a Hollywood movie yet it is another thing completely to hear it live. The call was both mesmerizing and sobering. These adhans were repeated across the globe, in countries with large Muslim populations; some of which looked unfavorably at Westerners and their ideologies. For the most part, Morocco was a safe setting but for me it still lent an exciting albeit irrational hint of danger during our visit.

FUN FACT: The five daily prayers are determined by the position of the sun relative to the worshiper: the Fajr prayer began at dawn or up till sunrise, Zuhr at noon or at the sun’s zenith, Asr in the late afternoon or when the shadow of an object was once or twice its length, Maghrib at the beginning of sunset up till the end of dusk, and finally Isha at night.

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