Sun sets, one wall at a time

How to do in words the changing of the light as the sun sets on the kasbah? Can’t really be done, so why try? Only to attempt to set down one aspect of it, and that is the paradoxical speed with which it happens. You stare and stare at the rich red-brown of the walls, ornamentation and jutting beams cast into high relief. You try to notice where the edge of the shadow lies, whether you can in fact see it move. Then your eye is taken by some other feature and by the time you turn back your wall is in full shadow. No matter, because elsewhere another shadow is on tip-toes across another wall. And then another. Only after an hour or so do you realize that the whole edifice has been overtaken by the shade, one wall at a time. Only the ruin at the very top of the hill stands illuminated still, and it is time to wander up from the river bank to take a mint tea on the terrace.