Why Damascus Hides Its Most Beautiful Homes: The Damascene Courtyard House

Walk down a lane in Old Damascus and you see nothing but walls of mud brick and stone and modest wooden doors. Then a door opens, you pass through a dark passage that turns once or twice, and you are standing in a sunlit courtyard with a fountain, a bitter-orange tree and jasmine climbing the walls. That is the secret of the Damascene house: the beauty is inside, never on the street.

Why were they built like this?

There is more than one reason. Privacy first: the house is the family's world, not something for passers-by. Then climate: thick walls, an open courtyard, water and trees make cool air through the hot Damascus summer. And a social habit: you did not show off your wealth to your neighbours, so it stayed behind the door.

The parts of the house

• Ard al-diyar: the central courtyard, the heart of the home.
• Bahra: the stone fountain in the middle, its sound part of daily life.
• Iwan: a lofty hall open on one side to the courtyard under a great arch, where the family sits in the evening.
• Ablaq: courses of black and white (or honey-coloured) stone in the walls.
• Qa'a: reception rooms with painted wooden ceilings and walls of coloured marble.

Houses you can visit

• Azem Palace: the best known and most complete, home to a museum of popular traditions.
• Maktab Anbar: a large nineteenth-century house near Straight Street.
• Beit Nizam and Beit al-Siba'i: among the most richly decorated houses in the old city, open at set times.

Sleep or dine in one

The best way to experience a Damascene house is not to visit it but to stay in it. Many old houses in Bab Touma, Qaymariyya and Bab Sharqi have become small hotels, restaurants and cafés. You wake to the fountain, have breakfast in the courtyard and spend the evening under the jasmine. Even if you stay in a modern hotel, make at least one dinner a courtyard dinner.