Why is it so loud at 4:30am?

That is the adhan for fajr, the dawn prayer, and it arrives roughly an hour and a half before sunrise — which in a Marrakech June means half past four, or earlier if the muezzin is feeling punctual. The medina keeps a mosque in nearly every quarter, so you never hear one call. You hear five or six, each starting a minute after the last, overlapping into something between a round and a conversation. People cross continents for that sound. It's just rarely mentioned that it comes with the sunrise attached.

And it moves. Prayer follows the sun, not the clock, so the call drifts earlier through spring and later through autumn — the 4:30 that woke you in June is a civilized 6:40 by December. During Ramadan a second voice joins in: the nafar, a man with a horn or drum who walks the streets waking households for the pre-dawn meal. The job has existed for centuries, and he collects his tips at Eid, as he should.

Most people stop hearing it by the third night, the way one stops hearing a fountain. If you don't, ask for a room set back from the courtyard — the courtyard amplifies everything, which is a story of its own.