Roadside Prayer Rooms

7

Saturday 28 March, 2015 by Uncle Spike

After my recent post introducing some of our rural mosques, I thought of some more you might be interested in, and even perhaps a little surprised at….

All villages have their own mosques, much the same as you might see a village church in many western countries. Of course, towns and cities can have many all around the place, and remember, nationally we have some 83,000.

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But get off the beaten track, and you start to come across tiny mosques, or Mescits (pronounced “mez-jits”), which are little more than prayer rooms frequented by travellers or folk working in that area. Take this next one for example; this is quite fancy really, with a pitched roof and even a tiny minaret!

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You may have even seen signposts for a Mescit in your travels, in an airport perhaps, or a shopping mall, roadside restaurant or even a gas station on a highway. But how about in the middle of the mountains, literally on the side of the road? 

Most of them are raised above the ground in order to keep them clear of animals and on these high roads, so that prayers can be made in times of deep winter snow.

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This next one is a simple raised platform though – a bit chilly in the winter! I often wonder if these count in the 83,000 but I suspect not. I’m gonna have to keep my camera at the ready on our next road trip for some more of these unusual structures!

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