The Cairo Symphony

The soundtrack of Cairo is two fold. First, there is the completely unmusical and inescapable sound of horns honking. They honk to inform people on the street that they're there, they honk to indicate people aren't moving fast enough, they honk to tell drivers to slow down. The horn, it is said, is the most important safety feature on a Cairene car.

The second sound I associate with Cairo is that of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer five times a day. Once you have lived in a Muslim country long enough, watches are no longer required as it becomes second nature to determine the time of day based upon the prayers called out over loud speakers all over the city.

Near my own flat, we have two muezzins - one in the front and one in the back. Despite the call to prayer being at set times of the day, these two men (or the Dueling Muezzins as we call them) never seem to start or end at the same time. The guy in back, in fact, always appears to have more to say, as his prayers seem to go on for much longer than the gentleman in front. Hubby has pointed out that this may simply be due to the proximity of one mosque’s loudspeaker over the other.

My favorite time of day in Cairo is around five in the morning. The air of Cairo is hauntingly silent at this time of day. Although this is a city that never seems to sleep, there are far fewer horns honking at this hour than any other. And then, off in the distance, a mysterious sound will announce the dawn. The sound becomes oddly more discordant and slightly louder as the minutes go by and I, unlike many of my neighbors, have the luxury of snuggling deeper within the folds of my duvet to await the approaching hum.

This rare, almost silent cocoon time is spent of listening for other echoes in the distance. Awoken by either his brethren in the distance or a simple alarm clock, my own muezzin will finally chime in with his chant. As he urges Muslims in the neighborhood to wake up and begin their prayer, I usually drift back to sleep.

When I wake up again, Cairo will return to its usual cacophony of horns and yelling. For those few moments at dawn, Cairo and I are at peace. That moment of silence broken only by the haunting sound of prayers is my favorite time of day in Cairo. And I will miss it.