Jazirat al Hamrah

Jazirat al Hamrah

Restored tower behind house featuring coral walls	Doorway of one room in the coral-walled house	Piece of brain coral in the wall	View from inside "foyer" with collapsed ceiling
Date palm truck lintel	Reconstructed tower	From inside courtyard of coral-walled house some of the interior rooms	View inside reconstructed tower to platform above
Inside tower, traditional materials and building methods have been used	Ladder leading to upper platform	Opening in floor above	Timbers wrapped in rope as part of floor construction
View down an interior street to a second reconstructed tower	Original decoration of wall niches	Room configuration of Jazirat al Hamrah houses matches ancient complement	Classic house construction with ventilation holes and extended roof beams
One of the houses made of cement blocks; blocks were made with cement and beach sand, a recipe for disaster	Doorway into a family compound	Cement block buildings	Well in the courtyard of the family compound
Cooking platform	Oven in the room that was evidently used as a kitchen	Wall peg	Hand-forged nail that once supported a timber
Ventilation holes in wall of kitchen	General view of the family courtyard	View of the family rooms	Interior of family room; narrow doorway leads to small secluded (bathing?) room
Note the decoration on the dividing wall and on the board ceiling	Decoration of an interior wall niche	Wall niches and ventilation holes	Broken plaster decoration
Circular ventilation holes and a traditional roof	Privacy room may have been combination interior toilet and bathing area	Painted trim around wall niche	Shelving built into wall of interior of the privacy room
Detail of floor showing original drain	Main family house (parents?) with "porch" and semi-cicle step	The star and crescent design is omnipresent at Hamrah	Family room in poor condition; slots along top of wall indicate beam placements
Debris on one platform appear to be camel bones and contents of stomach; note presence of rope and plastic	Exterior wall of a family compound	Two-storey construction was not uncommon	Exterior wall of room doubles as extension of perimeter wall
The beach sand, full of shells and salt, meant blocks broke down in humidity and heat	Intersection of neighborhood streets and main doorway to family compound; note brick deterioration	Older wall constructed of coral cut from the seabed	Plastered interior wall
Room where one wall has collapsed into the courtyard	Ventilation window features colored glass	Window with four shutter panels and unshuttered ventilation holes above	Hamrah was one of the first communities to feature electricity
The popular 'bugle' design	Exterior view of shuttered window	Unusual horizontal glazed window featured	Expanded ventilation hole suggests use of wall-unit air conditioning
Iron ring cemented into wall suggests animals were tethered	Collapsed wall	Neatly constructed door	Lower pivot hinge of door
Detail of carving on door	Well and toilet in unusually close proximity	View of interior of doorway leading to street	Latch of door
Street entrance	Early evidence of automobiles! Double doors on right are for automobile	Tower in an odd location in middle of street	An old Chinese(?) lock
Machine-made hinges a sign of modern construction	Small wooden latches to keep garage doors closed	Streetscape showing electricity poles and crumbling coral wall	Distant view of one restored tower
Small storeroom immediately inside entrance to family compound	View from below of the square tower	Metal doors leading to family compound	Graffiti covers many walls of the buildings at Hamrah
General view of house appears to show repaired wall where air conditioner was removed	Open air mosque, perhaps for the Eid prayers	View across rubble field of the round tower	Streetscape with square tower in the distance
Doors, often made of steel, were brightly painted	This garage had been renovated to be used as a shop	Metal doors leading to overgrown courtyard	Detail of the metal doors
Single-storey house with covered porch	Another view of the porch in front of the single-storey home	Hamrah featured municipal addresses	Wash basin indicates widespread use of modern interior plumbing
Plywood and lumber ceiling, along with ceiling fan and air conditioning hole, all indicate modern construction	Electricity panel	View from covered porch to a subsidiary building	Detail of decorated door
Detai of decorated door	Second-storey majlis of the 'pearl merchant's house'	Built entirely of coral, the first storey of this house is deteriorating quickly	General view of the family rooms of the main building, kitchen on the right
End wall of second storey majlis, showing original wind catchers	Detail of some of the finishing work on the wind catchers	Another angle shows where second storey floor apparently entended	View of interior of majlis
First story of the majlis building	Beams, palm matting of ceiling of first story of the majlis building	Hole in the wall of the main house	Indications on wall that the room went through at least three stages of design
Sarooj falling from wall exposing coral beneath	View of side of majlis showing how windows, doors and wind catchers have been modified over time	View through doorway of kitchen to the storage room beyond	One of the ovens in the kitchen area
The top of the interior wall separating the main family rooms was open	Classic ceiling construction in the family rooms	Small privacy room at one end of the family room	View of doorway leading to exterior (right) and door to privacy room (left)
View to exterior; note how plastering is separating from wall	View of privacy room in another family room	Side view of majlis building	Beach coral was likely sawn into blocks for use in construction
A number of small rooms (storage, family, servants?) extends perpendicular to the main building	General view of family rooms (left), kitchen (center) and majlis (right)	View of family rooms (left) and kitchen (right)	Modern building (school?) now occupies one side of the compound
Another view of the modern building	Main side wall of majlis	View from entrance into compound	Narrow passageway between buildings
Collapsed ceiling reveals palm matting and barasti used in construction	View of interior streets that were once busy in the 1960's	Interior of the modern building (school?) with paneling	View of majlis showing numerous wall niches
Mosque with unique minaret	Minaret	Public toilet?	Interior view of minaret showing steps leading to top
View from mosque	Interior of mosque	Interior of mosque showing prayer niche	Hook in ceiling beams to support ceiling fan
There were windows on three sides of the mosque	Wet cement was poured over barasti during construction causing imprinting on the rubble	Ventilation hole in mosque wall	Another view of the minaret
Mosque is located only a few hundred meters from the beach	'Main street' near the mosque	One of the shops along 'main street'	Concrete pillars were decorated with plaster 'stones'
Windows located close to the floor provided ventilation	These windows show no evidence of ever being glazed	Main shutters opening shop to street are falling off their hinges	View from inside shop back up the street to the mosque and beach
View from front of shop to mosque and beach	Distant view of mosque (minaret - left, mosque - middle, washing area - right)	At least two large family compounds feature classic vertical windcatchers	Doorway to compound and windcatcher
This house was evidently used as a set for a film or television crew	Exterior of house; windows on the street suggest this room was the majlis	Main gate to this compound	Windcatcher (right) and classic roof corner design
Courtyard of windcatcher house showed many signs of being used recently for filming	View from courtyard back through main gates to the street	Interior of what was evidently the majlis	Another view of the majlis
Immediately inside main gate platform where coffee would have been brewing for visitors	View from courtyard showing two windcatchers used in this complex	House with windcatcher	Another view of house with windcatcher
Simpler windcatcher design used on this house	View of ceiling with openings at base of windcatcher	'Porch' of room that featured the modestly designed windcatcher	Vertical view from base of windcatcher
Another view of windcatcher construction and design	Windows extended to the floor in most rooms	Ceilings were classic beam and palm mating construction	Detail of ceiling beams and palm matting
Decoration around doorway	Wall niches and decoration in family room	Inscription inside wall niche	Courtyard with reservoir on left
Another view of the courtyard	View of several family rooms cooled by this windcatcher	Exterior view of majlis	View through majlis window to interior