Privacy

One thing that constantly baffles us here in Saudi Arabia is how much the locals value privacy. Wherever you go, you will see walls. Families mostly live in one family houses surrounded by high walls and beautiful gates. It seems that most government buildings are also enclosed by walls. University campuses are no exception. Indeed, even our compound has a double wall. More about our compound later, but what we wanted to share with you today is a picture taken in Jeddah. You see, there was this guy who built a house and the house had the usual walls. But then someone decided to build an apartment building right next to his house. The apartment building was naturally a lot higher than this guy’s one family house, so the people in the apartment building could see over his walls right into his yard. This guy decided that something must be done in order to protect his family’s privacy. Check out the solution he came up with.

The apartment building on the left side. And behind the trees...

...you find this structure: