Africa & the Levant

The thinnest plate in the directory, and I would rather admit that than pad it.

Five entries is not a survey, it is a beginning, and I would rather say so plainly than dress four countries up as a continent. I have been to two of these houses. The other three sit here because someone I trust insisted, or because the thing inside them is too good to leave off a list on the grounds that I have not yet bought the ticket.

The houses that are here are courtyard houses, and they reward the same habit: stand still in the middle, look up, and let the plan explain itself before you start reading labels. In Marrakech and in Cairo I learned more in the first four minutes of standing than in the next hour of walking. The roof, wherever there is one, is worth the stairs.

Hours here are looser than the websites suggest, and closures are announced late or not at all. Ring ahead, go early, and hold the afternoon loosely. If you have been somewhere on this plate that I have not, write in — this is the region where I most want to be corrected.