them are as great a nuisance as the mud is in the rainy season, during
which they are scarcely passable after a shower; for in the interior of
the town the water does not run off, but remains till it is dried up. It
may be ascribed to the destructive rains,

[p.106] which, though of shorter duration than in other tropical
countries, fall with considerable violence, that no ancient buildings
are found in Mekka. The mosque itself has undergone so many repairs
under different sultans, that it may be called a modern structure; and
of the houses, I do not think there exists one older than four
centuries; it is not, therefore, in this place, that the traveller must
look for interesting specimens of architecture or such beautiful remains
of Saracenic structures as are still admired in Syria, Egypt, Barbary,
and Spain. In this respect the ancient and far-famed Mekka is surpassed
by the smallest provincial towns of Syria or Egypt. The same may be said
with respect to Medina, and I suspect that the towns of Yemen are
generally poor in architectural remains.

Mekka is deficient in those regulations of police which are customary in
Eastern cities. The streets are totally dark at night, no lamps of any
kind being lighted; its different quarters are without gates, differing
in this respect also from most Eastern towns, where each quarter is
regularly shut up after the last evening prayers. The town may therefore
be crossed at any time of the night, and the same attention is not paid
here to the security of merchants, as well as of husbands, (on whose
account principally, the quarters are closed,) as in Syrian or Egyptian
towns of equal magnitude. The dirt and sweepings of the houses are cast
into the streets, where they soon become dust or mud according to the
season. The same custom seems to have prevailed equally in ancient
times; for I did not perceive in the skirts of the town any of those