ABSTRACT
It has long been known that there are seven towns, including Ghardia, in Mʾzab Valley at the northern tip of the Sahara Desert in Algeria. All seven towns sit atop hills and are surrounded by city walls. At the peak of each hill towers a native minaret, and courtyard houses coil around the minaret (see Figure 16.1). Climbing up a winding road, one reaches the mosque at the summit. Although the minaret is no more than about 10 m tall, it not only serves as a symbol of the city’s scenery, but also controls the city’s spatial structure. There is supposedly a spatial rule that no house may be more than 7.5 m high, so that the minaret is visible from all the houses. The sight lines connecting the residents’ eyes and the minaret control the form of the urban space. View of Ghardia in Mʾzab Valley. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203401422/1e436c3e-b699-45a1-8b79-973d77c2f4b2/content/fig16_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
