Ancient buildings in Balad
- July 17, 2003
- Rated 4 of 5 by
Ahmed Nagoor from Jubail, India
The December morning was quiet and cool as I started crisscrossing the lanes and by lanes, stopping by to have a closer look at the century's old multi-storied buildings. Almost all the buildings house shops in the ground floor and residential quarters in the upper floors. The architecture of the building is unique for this region in that they are built mainly from rectangular mud bricks or cut stones. The lower portions of the walls are made of stone bricks while the mud bricks replace are predominantly used in the upper walls with latticed wooden poles placed horizontally running the entire length of the walls every 4 to 5 feet height. This different architecture tickled my engineering brain to think of the advantages offered by this method of construction. Wood is flexible in compression and distributes the load evenly to the lower bricks also effectively stopping any cracks in the wall developing beyond them, which makes repair work easier in addition to increasing the life of the building. The engineering mind of the medieval Arabs could be easily gauged by looking at these beautifully constructed multi-storied buildings, which has withstood the ravages of time and harsh environment of Arabia.
From journal Balad- The Soul of Jeddah