Alhambra). In Morocco, they became especially widespread in the palaces and mansions of Marrakesh, where the combination of available space and warm climate made them particularly appealing. The term is nowadays applied in a broader way to traditional Moroccan houses that have been converted into hotels and tourist guesthouses. Houses Traditional Moroccan houses were typically centered around a courtyard or patio, often surrounded by a gallery, from which other rooms and sections branched off. Courtyard houses have historical antecedents in the houses and villas of the Greco-Roman Mediterranean world and even earlier in the ancient Middle East. These houses were inward focused: even rich mansions are usually completely unadorned on the outside, with all decoration concentrated on the inside. There were few, if any, large windows on the outside. The entrance, which led to the courtyard, was typically a bent entrance that prevented outsiders in the street from seeing directly inside the house. As with other traditional Moroccan structures, decoration included carved stucco, sculpted and painted wood, and zellij tilework. The central patio/courtyard, known as the wast ad-dar ("middle of the house") was thus the centerpiece of the house. The size and craftsmanship of this interior space was an indication of the status and wealth of its owners, rather than the house's external appearance. This inward focus of Moroccan house architecture may have been partly supported by the values of Islamic society, which placed emphasis on privacy and encouraged a separation between private family spaces – where women generally lived and worked – and semi-public spaces where outside guests were received. Nonetheless, pre-Islamic traditions of domestic architecture in the Mediterranean and Africa were also at the origin of this model. These two factures likely contributed together to making the courtyard house the near-universal model of traditional Moroccan houses. It is unclear to what extent Moroccan riads and houses were inspired by models imported by immigrants from al-Andalus, where many early examples have also survived, or to what extent they developed locally in parallel with Andalusi versions. What is certain, however, is that there was historically a close cultural and geopolitical relationship between the two lands on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar, and that the palaces of Granada, for example, were thus similar to those of Fes in the same period. Moroccan house architecture up to 16th century A number of historic bourgeois mansions have survived across the country,