624 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



siderable size. I should not omit to mention the monastic establish- 

 ments and chapels of the Crimea built in caves, and those of the 

 rugged Thessalian Mountains, views of which appear in plates 6 

 and 10. 



Among the most interesting forms of Crimean troglodytic dwell- 

 ings are those described by Prof. G. F. Wright in Records of the 

 Past (vol 6, part 1) near Bakhtci-Sarai, the crypts of Katchikalen. 

 and the "Valley of Jehoshaphat " (pi. 7). At the last mentioned 

 locality there is a "promontory with precipitous faces on either 

 side several hundred feet in height. The surface is covered by 

 massive ancient ruins, while many passages lead down to extensive 

 excavations with the windows open out upon the face of the precipice 

 below." 



Fergusson reports more than a thousand caves of architectural 

 importance in the western part of India, and the cave temples of 

 Ellora may be regarded as the culmination of Braminic cave 

 architecture. There is a remarkable locality for the study of cave 

 dwellings, called " The Thousand Caves," in the mountains of Koko- 

 Nor, in Cambodia. The loess formation in certain parts of China 

 is fairly riddled with artificial habitations. Mr. F. B. Wright has 

 called my attention to caves of this kind at Shi-wan-tse, a place 

 visited by him outside the Great Wall. 



There might also be called to your mind the rooms inhabited by 

 Greek priests, which have been excavated in large bowlders, and 

 inhabited natural caves in the Caucasus Mountains; in some cases the 

 cave mouth is filled in with an artificial wall made of stones, reeds, 

 or bamboo. I can not do more than mention the cliff buildings of 

 this kind reported from our possessions, the Philippines. 



Certain climatic resemblances between the oases of the Sahara, in 

 northern Africa, and the deserts of the Southwest have brought about 

 remarkable similarities in habitations. We have in the Sahara 

 region, extending from Egypt, through Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco, 

 to the west coast of Africa, a region of subterranean dwellings repro- 

 ducing in appearances those common to the arid belt of the New 

 World. It is instructive to note the similarity of these ancient 

 Berber homes and certain Pueblo dwellings. It is perhaps more than 

 a coincidence that we have coexisting among the former, as with the 

 latter, two architectural forms, one above ground, the other below, 

 the one a cliff and pit dwelling, the other an independent village. 



The character of Tunisian Berber towns can best be illustrated by 

 a typical pit habitation and town, and for this comparison I have 

 chosen Matmata and Medinine. The village of Matmata (pi. 5, fig. 

 1), near Gabes, is certainly one of the most extraordinary under- 

 ground settlements yet described. 1 As the visitor approaches it, we 



J Pie Troglodyten des Matmata, von Paul Traeger. Zeit. fur Ethnologic. 100<>. p. 100. 



