"The ezan, the traditional Islamic call to player, rings out five times a day in scenic Kaleici from all of the rustic Turkish town's five mosques - a mixture of chants that scare tourists away, hoteliers say. Situated between the yacht harbour and the main city of Antalya, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, Kaleici, with its historic Turkish and Greek houses is becoming increasingly popular with foreign tourists. But hotel owners fear that the growth in business they are experiencing could be stunted by jarring ezans.
"The ezan sounds beautiful on its own, when one imam's ezan gets mixed up with the other imams', it loses its beauty and causes disruption," according to one hotel owner.
The gripe he and others have is that the imams start reading their ezans with a time difference that varies from several seconds to a minute, and also read them at different tones and pitches, all of which leads to an indistinguishable cacophony. "The result startles and confuses the tourists, making them uncomfortable - especially when it's five times a day," the hotel owner says."
TURKEY: CALL TO PRAYER IS A CACOPHONY, HOTELIERS COMPLAIN
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