I thought I’d take a momentary break from my Morocco galleries. I still have several places to cover, but it was a very full itinerary for two weeks, so lots of pictures.

This is a residential area in the Diplomatic Quarter, near Sahraa’s favorite “Palm Park.” There are two possible explanations for this ghost town-looking place. One is that it’s the holy month of Ramadan, where Muslims must abstain from food and water from sunup to sundown, and I’m told that Saudis sleep during the day and eat and stay up all night long in Ramadan. As a result, there is absolutely nobody on the streets during the day, not even laborers who can’t work without water in this brutal heat. The other possibility is that like many houses in the DQ, these are finished but not occupied because the electrical grid isn’t able to support any new construction. It’s amazing – there is so much building going on, but nobody can move into the houses.

Last image in the Marrakech gallery, posted earlier: