Photo by Soler 



TROGLODYTE COURTYARD, OR PAT 10 OP THE SHEIK OP M ATM AT A, SHOWING 

 ENTRANCES INTO VARIOUS CAVES 



The holes vary in depth and width, but average nine meters deep by fifteen meters in 

 circumference. This great hole is used as a "patio," or courtyard. Numerous caves dug in 

 the sides of the hole serve as living-rooms and storehouses. One enters these dwellings by 

 means of a passage tunneled through the earth or rock. Some of the ceilings are roughly 

 ornamented with Arabic designs cut in bas-relief in the rock and the dates when the dwell- 

 ings were dug. None of them seem to go back more than 100 years (see text, page 49; see 

 also the remarkable series of illustrations of these cave towns in the October, 191 1, number 

 of the National Geographic Magazine). 



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