in 1631, now the Gayer-Anderson Museum Hasht Behesht Palace in Isfahan, Iran Amber Palace in Amer, India Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik Palace in Cairo – built in the early 20th century Contemporary Mashrabiya House in Beit Safafa, Jerusalem – a modern reinterpretation of a traditional building Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France – a contemporary building, completed in 1987, inspired by the façades of Arabic architecture Doha Tower in Doha, Qatar – a contemporary structure that references mashrabiya Louvre Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – the dome of the museum was inspired by traditional mashrabiya Al Bahar Towers in Abu Dhabi – twin towers that use the principles of mashrabiya for effective thermal control In literature and art As a distinctive element in vernacular architecture with symbolic associations, the mashrabiya has inspired many poets, artists and writers. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Western travellers and adventurers, travelled overland from Aleppo to Basra, along the route known as the Great Desert Caravan Route, leaving behind journals of their journeys. Their accounts often include commentary on local architecture encountered, including window treatments and mashrabiya. Some of these writers include: the Portuguese explorer, Pedro Teixeira (who travelled in the 1580s), the Danish explorer and cartographer, Carsten Niebuhr (1733-1815), the English traveller, John Jackson (d. 1807), the German architectural historian, Oskar Reuther (1880-1954) and the English artist, Tristram Ellis (1844-1922). The absence of ground floor windows at street level was a theme taken up in many travellers’ accounts. William Beawes who travelled the route in 1745 considered the absence of street facing windows to be “very disagreeable to Europeans”, while John Jackson, who travelled the same territory thirty years later remarked that homes resembled “prisons”. Carsten Neibihr, the Danish cartographer, who travelled the route in the 1760s, noted that, in hot countries, glazed windows were a rarity; instead latticed window openings provided ventilation and light. Tristam Ellis, writing in 1881, provided a detailed account of shanshil in Baghdad: It is always on the hareem that the greatest efforts of ornamentation are expended. The walls from the floor to the ceiling, as well as the ceiling itself, are covered with every colour of the rainbow in elaborate arabesque patterns…windows appearing above this for the purpose of introducing air and light… When all the windows are open this system allows the free circulation of air during the hot weather, but enables