Moorish Courts 
COURT OR A MOORISH HOUSE ALGIERS 
to improve the apparent proportions. The 
kitchen occupies the fourth side, and is 
shorter than the other rooms by reason 
of its containing the stairway, an entrance 
passage and necessaries. An open colonnade 
supports the second floor; and if there is a 
third story, a second tier of columns is 
superimposed upon the first. 
J'he irregularity, which is caused at first 
by the shape of the property itself, con¬ 
tinues throughout the Moorish house. Only 
bv accident, it would seem, are two lines 
ever parallel or horizontal. Often the 
general quadrangle has several breaks 
within the length of each side, and no 
effort is made to conceal these inside the 
rooms. Even the familiar “ horseshoe ” 
arch is declared by some travelers to be 
constructed entirely by the eye without any 
established rule, and can never be found 
with its two halves exactly alike. The cusps 
which traverse the intrados of the arches are 
also delightfully free in their contours. 
If it be impossible to obtain a square or 
rectangular court by the above arrangement, 
a second court and surroundings are devised 
—sometimes in the position of a mezzanine 
floor. It may be allotted to guests, women’s 
apartment’s or to servants, and would have 
a separate entrance from the street. This 
entrance is always L shaped so that no one 
from without may look into the court, though 
his gaze may succeed in passing the huge 
door heavily locked and studded with nails. 
The outside of the houses have few win¬ 
dows, and light and air are obtained from 
the court. Each room has a central door 
opening upon the corridor. Additional air 
and some light are admitted through a panel 
of fretwork above the door, and very often 
by a series of narrow open slits high up on 
the walls. These openings are about three 
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