• One street divides the village administratively between two different provinces
• A one-minute difference determines when residents break their fast on either side of the road

Residents of a small village in Turkey experience something unusual during Ramadan: despite living just steps away from one another, they break their fast at slightly different times.

A narrow road, no more than seven meters wide, splits the village into two halves that fall under separate provinces, resulting in a one-minute difference in the Maghrib call to prayer and the time of iftar on each side.

One side of the road belongs to the village of Şentepе in Ordu province on the Black Sea coast, while the opposite side falls under Ambartepe in neighboring Samsun province.

What appears to be a minor administrative line on official maps has shaped daily life in the village for decades, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

Each side follows its own mosque and adheres to the official prayer timetable of its respective province.

At sunset, the call to prayer is heard first in Şentepе, based on Ordu’s astronomical calculations, while the mosque in Ambartepe follows about a minute later according to Samsun’s schedule.

The difference stems from precise geographic and astronomical factors, including variations in longitude and the officially adopted methods used to calculate sunset times.

The two sides break their fast at the same time only during the first four days of Ramadan, before the schedules begin to diverge for the rest of the month.

Despite this, residents say the time gap has never caused tension or disagreement; instead, it has become part of the village’s natural rhythm.

When families from opposite sides invite each other for iftar, they gather around one table and eat together at a mutually agreed time, while most residents follow the call to prayer from the mosque serving their area.

Engin Arslan, head of Şentepе village, described the situation as “a simple matter of geography,” noting that residents have adapted to it since settling in the area nearly 80 years ago.