As far as exotic sounds go, the Islamic call to prayer is up with the best. Like chirping cicadas, or the call of an elephant, it's one of the sounds that makes me feel far from home, and realise I'm not walking down Walton Street anymore. I heard it first in India, got transfixed by it in Zanzibar, but here in Al Azhar Park in Cairo, it's breathe-taking, unbelievable, and unbeatable. The park is built on a hill to the east of Cairo, and has 360 degree views of the Islamic part of the city, where minarets and mausoleums risie out of the narrow passageways and dominate the skyline (although they're now being enveloped by the ever encroaching satellite dishes). As the sunsets in the distance, bathing the limestone buildings with warm autumn sunshine, the sound
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