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Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, p. 161. |
A Narrow By-Way in
Damascus
The private houses of
Damascus are almost as remarkable for their
external plainness as for their internal
splendour. A stranger in traversing the city
would never guess that it contained such
luxurious residences, for they are nearly
always situated in tortuous streets with high
bare walls on each side; an occasional
doorway, more or less decorated, is the only
outward and visible sign of their existence. .
. . The entrance to a private house is . . .
generally only large enough to admit one
person at a time, and opens into a passage
which, after one or more abrupt turnings,
leads into the principal court of the house,
which varies in size from fifty to even a
hundred and fifty feet square. They are
sometimes oblong, and an ordinary-sized court
measures eighty feet by fifty. In Muslim
establishments the principal court and its
surrounding apartments are reserved
exclusively for the use of the harem, a
smaller court nearer the entrance being used
by the master of the house for the reception
of his guests . . . .All the rooms round the
court open into it, and the windows have no
other outlook. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, pp. 164-166.)
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Reception Room of a Damascus House |
Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2, 182. |
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The walls of a superior house, up to the
height of about twenty feet, are built in
alternate courses of black and white or black
and yellowish-coloured stone, or white stone
walls are painted inside and outside in
stripes to represent alternate courses . . . .
Nearly in the middle of the south side of the
court there is always a wide and lofty arched
recess or alcove, with slightly raised
flooring, and cushioned seats on its three
sides. On each side of this there is a closed
reception room. The principal one always has a
fountain in the lower part of it, which is
paved with marble and called the ’Atabeh. Here
the guests put off their shoes before they
step on to the raised dais, which is cushioned
and carpeted, and occupies the larger portion
of the apartment. Over the ’Atabeh, in a grand
salon, there is usually a clerestory with
stained-glass windows; its ceiling should
always be higher than that of the daïs. Some
idea of the richness of the decoration of a
modern house in Damascus may be formed by
examining the excellent illustration . . .
which represents the ’Atabeh of a reception
room. (Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 2,
pp. 167-168.) |
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Source:
Picturesque Palestine, vol. 1, p.
127. |
External Stairway of a House at
Bethlehem |
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It is difficult for those who have spent all
their lives in a cold, inhospitable Western
clime to understand the peculiarities of the
East. Orientals pass most of their days and
nights in the open air. Except in the cold of
winter, the house is used among the middle and
lower classes more for privacy than for
residence. During nine months in the year to
bivouac is, as a rule, a positive luxury.
Within, the houses are oppressive, the
ventilation is bad, the chambers are rarely,
if ever, perfectly clean; so that the terrace
roof, or the garden, or the vineyard, or the
open hill-side, is far more pleasant for rest
and sleep. Travellers generally prefer the
balmy air of their tents to the stuffy city
hotel. Such has been my experience. And even
now, amid the splendours of Western
civilization and the luxurious trappings of an
English bed-room, I have many a time longed
for the freshness and untrammelled freedom of
my camp and my tent—even for a bivouac amid
the hills of Judah. The clear, starry nights,
and early mornings, are wonderfully
invigorating. (Source: Jerusalem, Bethany, and Bethlehem, p. 100.) |
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Summer House, Caesarea Philippi |
Source:
Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee, p. 207. |
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Here are curious structures on the top of
low stone houses. The natives in Caesarea
Philippi living among the ruins of the ancient
city are afraid of scorpions, and the people
to escape them during the night build on the
top of stone buildings summer houses made of
reeds and brush, and into these they crawl to
spend the night. They are lifted about two
feet on poles above the roof and are said to
be very cool and comfortable at night. Summer
houses are used only for sleeping purposes.
Whatever of cooking is done is in the lower
stone apartment. (Source:
Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee, p. 207.) |
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See
Marketplace,
Cafes and Coffee,
Tombs and
Burial Customs,
Water Supplies,
Weddings,
Women and Clothing,
or
Women and Work |
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