Not So Quiet

Given that al Masjid al Haram is the holiest location in the Islamic world you might expect a reverential, contemplative silence to prevail within its precincts. Happily you'd be wrong. I say happily since Islam is a religion that above all deals with the world as it is and how we need to act within it. There is nothing of the monastic about it, and its holiest mosque echoes the sounds of a relentlessly busy world. Except, I suppose, during prayers, but even then the coughing and sputtering of the worshippers dealing with the onslaught of the common cold - and there's nothing more common here, believe me - has its own fractured music. You are not granted any kind of comfortable, meditative silence here, so you need to create your own inner version.