Arabic buildings and houses

How it is calculated

History and fun facts

Moroccan riad

A riad is a town house in the old medinas of Morocco, such as Fez, Marrakesh and Meknes. The word riad actually means garden: the heart of the house is a courtyard with a garden or fountain. From outside you only see a plain wall with a small door; all the rooms look inwards.

• The entrance often has a bend, so passers-by cannot simply look into the courtyard.
• Zellige is a mosaic of small, hand-cut pieces of glazed tile, laid in stars and bands.
• Many old riads in Marrakesh and Fez are now guesthouses.
• A classic garden is split into four by paths that cross at the fountain.

Yemeni tower house

The old city of Sana'a in Yemen is famous for its tower houses of five to eight storeys, with white gypsum frames around the windows. The old city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The animals and storage were often at the bottom, the living rooms at the top.

• The top room is called the mafraj: a sitting room with a view where guests are received.
• The round windows above the windows are called qamariya (from qamar, moon). In the past they held thin sheets of alabaster, later coloured glass.
• The walls get thinner towards the top, so the tower becomes lighter and stays stable.

Gulf wind-tower house

Along the coasts of the Persian Gulf, for example in the Al Fahidi (Bastakiya) district of Dubai and in Bahrain, merchants built houses with square wind towers, called barjeel. Such towers come from Iran, where they are called badgir; many still stand in Yazd.

• The open slots catch the wind, which flows down the shaft into the room.
• Cross walls in the tower split it into channels, so air comes in on one side and warm air goes out on the other.
• Walls were often built of coral stone from the sea and plastered white.

Kasbah

A kasbah is a fortified house or fort of rammed earth and mud brick, mostly in the south of Morocco along the old caravan routes. The fortified village of Aït Benhaddou is a World Heritage Site, and the Dadès valley has so many kasbahs that it is called the road of a thousand kasbahs.

• The corner towers taper, so the mud does not give way under its own weight.
• The decorative patterns at the top of the towers are left open in the brickwork.
• Mud has to be repaired after heavy rain; an abandoned kasbah slowly turns back into earth.
• Aït Benhaddou has been the setting for many films and series.

Omani fort

Oman has hundreds of forts and castles. Nizwa Fort has a huge round tower from the 17th century that is filled with earth far up. Bahla Fort is a World Heritage Site, and Jabrin Castle is known for its painted ceilings.

• A falaj is a centuries-old channel that carries water from mountains or springs to villages and palm gardens. The aflaj are on the World Heritage list too.
• Above the gate there were often openings so defenders could act from the wall.
• Date palms gave food, shade and building material for roofs.

Caravanserai

A caravanserai (or han, or khan) was an inn along trade routes such as the Silk Road, roughly a day's journey apart. Travellers, camels and goods could spend the night safely inside the walls. Many still stand in Iran, Turkey, Syria and Central Asia.

• There was usually only one big gate, which was closed at night.
• The animals and goods stayed downstairs, the travellers slept upstairs.
• In the middle of the courtyard there was often a water basin or a small prayer kiosk.

Souk

The souk is the market of an old Arab city. Each street often had its own trade: leather, copper, spices or fabrics. The covered souk of Aleppo was one of the longest covered markets in the world and was badly damaged in the war; parts are being restored. In Isfahan and Tabriz the bazaars have rows of domes with skylights.

• Skylights in the vault let in light while the street stays cool and shady.
• In Marrakesh they stretch cloth or reed mats over the street.
• The bazaar of Tabriz is a World Heritage Site.

Shibam

Shibam in Yemen is called the Manhattan of the desert. The walled city has hundreds of mud-brick tower houses, often five to eight storeys high, close together on a grid. Most of the houses standing today date from the 16th century and later, and the city is a World Heritage Site.

• Building tall and close together kept the city safe and the lanes cool.
• The tops of many houses are whitewashed against rain and sun.
• Some houses used to be linked high up, so you could go from house to house.

Bedouin tent

Bedouin in the deserts of Arabia, Jordan and North Africa lived in tents of woven goat hair, bayt al-sha'r: house of hair. Wadi Rum in Jordan is a well-known place where you still see them.

• Goat hair swells when it gets wet, so the tent becomes tighter in the rain.
• The tent is woven in narrow strips that are sewn together.
• A woven curtain (qata) divides the tent into a guest side and a family side.
• Coffee and hospitality by the hearth matter a lot; Arabic coffee is on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage.

Mosque

A mosque is a house of prayer. Many early mosques have an open courtyard (sahn) and a hall full of columns; the mihrab is a niche in the wall that shows the direction of Mecca. The Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia has a massive square minaret, the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq the famous spiral minaret (the Malwiya), and Ottoman mosques such as those in Istanbul have slender pencil minarets and large domes.

• From the minaret the muezzin used to call to prayer with his own voice.
• The fountain in the courtyard is for the ritual washing before prayer.
• The Malwiya is about 52 metres high and you walk up an outside ramp.
• The minbar next to the mihrab is a staircase with a pulpit for the Friday sermon.