Page 299 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

‘280 COAST OF ARABIA. [CH.

n slope gradually rising from the sea. On
the land side it is surrounded by a wall,
strengthened at intervals by watch-towers.
There are two gates, the Bab-el-Mecca and
the Bab-el-Medina, which are also fortified;
together with batteries at either extremity of
the town, which command the harbour.
The streets are airy, the houses lofty and
well built of coral. The purest Saracenic
architecture is found here, at Sana, Mokha,
and some other towns in the lower portion of

the Red Sea. But, proceeding northward,
we lose many of its characteristics, as it be­
comes blended with that of Egypt. The
progress of the same style may however be
traced along the whole of the southern shore
and the borders of the Persian Gulf to Bagh­
dad, where, under the splendid dominion of
the caliphs, it fully realized our conceptions
of Oriental lightness, elegance, and splendour.
There, as in the modern towns which I have

named, the round, elliptical, and pointed arch
form the entrance to houses of any considera-
tion. Consistently with this peculiar order,
they have projecting windows, as may be
observed at Oxford, Coventry, and other old