ENTRANCE TO A PRIVATE MANSION, CAIRO. 
Mr. Lane, in his “ Modern Egyptians,” mentions the peculiar character of the private 
1 louses of their metropolis as deserving particular description, and he gives a very 
characteristic woodcut of a narrow street, which, he says, is wider than usual, where 
the projecting windows so overhang as effectually to exclude the sun. From the 
foundation to the ground-floor the walls are cased with a yellowish-coloured stone, 
and the alternate courses, as seen in the mosques, are also often coloured red and 
white. The first-floor is commonly carried out on corbels, and the windows projected 
from the rooms. 
There is a general style in the architectural arrangements to the entrances of the 
private houses in Cairo. The door is frequently ornamented; and generally in com¬ 
partments, with sometimes inscriptions, such as, “ He (i. e. God) is the Creator Ever¬ 
lasting these are usually in white or black characters. Often, there are corresponding 
compartments of the same form, hut variously coloured; the remainder of the door is 
generally green, though it be the sacred colour of the Prophet. The doors have iron 
knockers and wooden locks: these are very secure, for, by means of a simple and 
efficient arrangement of wires, they are not dissimilar in principle to our Bramah’s 
locks. A mounting-stone is also often seen by the doors of private houses. Before 
entering even the poorest houses, it is usual for the visitors to utter, often at the top 
of their voices, certain sentences, in order to give the females, who may be busy in 
their domestic avocations, time to veil or cover their faces. Without this mark of 
decorum, no one would think of entering the most humble dwelling. 
The doorways are generally arched with merely the segment of a circle, and often 
with beautiful arabesque decorations and traceries around the arch and on the spandrels 
within the rich mouldings which bound the portico. In the example drawn by 
Mr. Roberts a second arch, and even a third, rises above the door; and within 
between two of these is a projecting latticed window, adapted for observation by the 
ladies and others within, but perfectly concealing them from the passers-by in the 
street. These windows are sometimes, in the houses of the richer inhabitants, glazed 
inside, but more frequently they are left without glass, giving free access to the air at 
all times. The framework of the lattice, formed of turned wood, is generally fixed, 
and though often painted, it is more frequently left the natural colour of the wood. 
The external appearance of these latticed windows is one of the most striking charac¬ 
teristics of Oriental domestic architecture. 
Lane’s Modern Egyptians. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
