Katmandu living

In our house as in most houses in Yemen we have a half circle of colored glass over the windows. While Lieke’s family was here Lieke’s sister Margje took pictures of most of these windows in our house. It was quite an undertaking as there are more than 30 in our house. Below you will find a couple of the pictures - the first on from Wadi Dhar and the second one from our house. As you can see the one from our house is just as nice as the one from Wadi Dhar. Anyway looking at all the pictures that Margje had taken got me to wonder about the purpose of these windows. As everything else, this information is of course available on the net. Below is a quote from Yemen Times:

Above the windows, a half-spherical shape of marble and glass is built. This shape is known as Al-Kamariah from the Arabic word Kamar or the moon. The function of this shape is derived from its name, i.e. to let the light of the moon come inside the rooms during the nights where there is a full moon. The pure transparency and variety of colors of Al-Kamariah glass creates a magical atmosphere during moony nights.