Part 2
Once the work of the "maamarjeh" is finished, came the turn of the carpenter (najjar) to take over. He had to put in place the roof or "sqoufieh".
The Roof
The roof consisted of a wooden structure covered by clay (picture on the right showing the wooden structure of the cieling). The "najjar" had to prepare the joists then to place them 50 cm apart, lying one edge on the wall and the other on the arcades (dahr al qantara). These joists have to support the weight of the roof, therefore they have to be of a certain thickness and must be solid. Generally they were taken from mulberry (tout) and especially from "Zenzlakht" a tree of a Persian origin having a very resistant wood. The space between the joists is covered with "khashab" which are pieces of wood of 3 to 4 cm of thickness, 10 cm wide and 50 cm long. Then comes the "ballan" or "ghawf", sort of hard plants that grow widely in the mountains of Lebanon.
Once the wooden structure is finished they
proceeded to the "tetrib" or covering the structure with soil "trab". The "trab"
must contain no gravels and must be of more then 50 cm in thickness over the
wooden structure. It is
also covered with a thin layer of "hawara" or a
white flour like soil. The thick layer of "trab" is finally rendered
watertight by the "mahdaleh". The "mahdaleh" is a piece of cylindrical stone
that has two holes on each edge, it rolls by pulling or pushing it with an
iron arc (kaws) that hangs tightly on the two holes of the edges. A rain
pipe is finally posed generally on the northern wall.
a woman pulling the rolling stone under the rain in order to keep the clay roof watertight. The iron arch attached to the edges of the cylindrical stone is well noticed in the picture
The access to the roof was an outdoor stair of stones posed during the building of the walls (picture below left). The roof must be accessed easily because in winter we have to use the rolling stone to maintain the roof watertight and in summer this same roof is used as a sleeping room under a tent of tree branches (picture below right). In summer many sorts of vegetables are exposed to the sun on the roof to be dried up.
Since long time ago the Lebanese house had always three gates "bwab" dispersed in the following manner: "bab el bahreh" or the gate facing the sea is always in the middle of the wall toward the west, "bab el gharb" and "bab el shemal" (western and northern gates) are not in the middle of the southern and northern walls but give access to "souk el tehtaneh". The "souk al foukaneh" is illuminated by two windows "shbabik" always in the the southern and northern walls. The oriental (eastern) wall supports no aperture.
The doorway is a thick oblong stone "bertash" that separate the outdoor floor from an indoor square depression. This depression "jouret al bab" covers the area upon which the door swings. It is nearly 5 cm below the main floor of the house and keeps the inside floor away from rain water or mud. The door is usually a one piece door, made of wood.
The only door that is locked with a key is always the one on the northern side, the other doors or gates and the windows are locked internally by the "sakouta" or by a "najr", sorts of iron or wooden pellets that go up (open) or down (close).