House & Garden 
MOORISH COURTS 
A GARDEN within one’s house and in 
the heart of a city ! This is now, and 
has been for centuries, the possession of the 
Moor. The sun beats pitilessly upon his 
roof and bleaches into powder the surface of 
streets heated by Saharan winds; but once 
within the entrance of his dwelling, the 
hot arid ness is left behind ; the din and 
uproar of the busy thoroughfare dies away ; 
and the silence of a home reigns in its place. 
Unsightly filth and squalor are forgotten, 
and all senses refresh themselves before the 
garden of that open court, around which the 
life of the domestic establishment quietly 
passes by. Through open doorways are 
wafted the fragrance of flowers, the songs of 
birds and the muffled plashing of fountains. 
Open to the sky is the courtyard, and 
although unsheltered from the sun, the 
warm rays are tempered below by fresh 
verdure and the shadows of surrounding 
arcades, the reverse image of whose arches is 
mirrored on the still surface of a pool. 
City life under torrid temperature is quite 
bearable in northern Africa. The rational 
arrangement of the houses makes it so. 
They have manv features from the lack of 
which we suffer here in summer months, but 
the central court is the most important, and 
it is the vital part of Moorish house-plans. 
It gives so much enjoyment, indeed, to 
home life in a warm climate that we find its 
counterpart, the Spanish “patio,” growing 
in favor in our own Southern States and in 
California. The external walls of a Moorish 
house follow the meandering lines of the 
lot—usually an irregular quadrangle. Along 
three sides are arranged the living-rooms. 
These apartments are narrow in proportion 
to their length, often being but ten or 
twelve feet wide; and arches are sometimes 
thrown across them at about one-fourth 
the length of the room from each end, so as 
MOORISH GALLERY IN THE CHATEAU HYDRA 
ALGIERS 
475 
