Highlights
- Six en-suite bedrooms
- Double-height courtyard, four ground-floor salons
- Carved stucco and painted cedar ceilings
- Plunge pool roughly six metres long
- Hammam off the ground floor
The courtyard and the salons
Two storeys of open air in the middle of the house, with a gallery round the first floor and four salons opening off the ground level, one on each side. One of them takes a table long enough for twelve, two are set up for sitting, and the fourth stays cool enough in August to be worth using in the afternoon. Carved stucco covers the walls above the arches, the ceilings are painted cedar, and the floor is marble in cream and grey. A plunge pool of roughly six metres by one and a half runs under the gallery on the shaded side.
Twelve people, six rooms
Six bedrooms, all en suite, open off the gallery on the floor above, so you reach each one without walking through anyone else’s. Sizes vary; two are large enough to take a cot and a sofa, the rest are more even. There is a hammam off the ground floor, which takes a couple of hours to heat, so it tends to be settled on early in the day. The roof is broad and mostly unshaded, with a canvas awning over about a third of it, so it works at either end of the day rather than the middle.
Amenities
- Six en-suite bathrooms
- Marble-lined courtyard plunge pool
- Four salons at ground level
- Hammam with heated bench
- Roof terrace with canvas awning
- Air conditioning and central heating
Ideal for
Available on request
- Chef for the full stay
- Transfers for twelve
- Hammam attendant and massage
- Guide for the palaces and museums
- Minibus for day trips
Charged separately from the stay and confirmed case by case.
Gallery
The area
The museums, the tanneries and the old palaces are a walk rather than a drive from here, and the souks start a few turnings away. What the old city withholds is ground-level outdoor space. The courtyard and the roof are the whole of it, and twelve people will use both hard, which is why the number of places to sit matters more here than square metres would elsewhere.
What the photos won't tell you
Every listing in the world photographs the pool from its best corner, and no photograph answers the questions that decide a stay. So before you commit, we put the following in writing for your dates:
- How far the car gets, and how many metres and steps remain with the luggage.
- Who the neighbours are, and what you will hear at five in the morning.
- Whether the pool is heated, and in which months that decides whether you swim.
- What “staffed” covers — who is there, at what hours, and who cooks.
- Where the wifi actually reaches, not just where the router is.
- Which of the property’s own photographs were taken with a wide-angle lens, and what a room looks like from the doorway.
Common questions
Can twelve people eat together?
Usually, yes. A house arranged this way normally has a salon that takes a table for twelve, and the courtyard tends to work well for lunch. Twelve is a size at which eating out needs organising a day ahead, so groups this large usually end up at the house more often than they expected.
How do twelve people and their luggage get in?
On foot, and it is worth planning. Twelve people and twelve suitcases arriving together make for a slow half hour in the lanes, so most groups split the arrival into two waves and let the bags follow behind. Anyone who does not want the last stretch on foot should say so before the day.
Is the hammam usable, or decorative?
Usually usable rather than ornamental. A hammam of this kind is normally a proper wet room with heated floor and bench, and it takes a couple of hours to reach temperature, so it is worth deciding on in the morning rather than at nine at night. An attendant can usually be arranged.
What is it like in winter?
A double-height courtyard stays cool in January, which is welcome in summer and less so then. Salons and bedrooms in a house of this kind are normally heated, and the fourth salon is the one to sit in. The roof is for the middle of the day then, not the evening.
Request this stay
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. A person reads it and answers.