Saturday, November 17, 2012

Naseef House Detail

Naseef House is one of the better preserved buildings in the oldest part of Jeddah called Al Balad.   It is now a museum.  Built of crushed coral, the building is accented with bas relief designs.  The structure sports beautiful examples of the traditional wooden window screen coverings called "roshan."

To see more photos of the unique roshan window features in Jeddah, click here.

2 comments:

Judy said...

This building is exquisite. I would love to look inside these walls. Have you been in? It is probably one of those places that forbid photography inside.

Susie of Arabia said...

Hi Judy - Yes, I have been inside. The ground floor has some museum type information and an area for video viewing. The stairs going several floors up to the rooftop were designed wide enough so that a camel could carry groceries up to the kitchen. There is a lovely shaded area on the rooftop where the calls to prayer from about 3 dozen neighboring mosques can be heard, which is quite a spiritual experience. I wrote more about this a while back: http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com/2010/03/tour-of-al-balad.html