The Phoenician cities also were surrounded by fortified walls, and
dwellings were burrowed into the very body of the ramparts. In order not
to extend the limits of the city too much, the houses in the central
portions were built very high. In the chief quarters of Carthage some of
them had as many as six stories; they were covered with flat roofs, and,
as is the case of all warm countries, the streets were narrow. The
residences of the rich merchants were of a marked character and were
easily distinguished; they were all provided with cisterns; they had
inner courts adorned with porches, and with open galleries along the
upper stories. The streets, squares and courts were paved with broad
flags, probably for the purpose of saving every drop of water that fell.
There were also public cisterns, and ports for shipping. As their
country abounded in stone that could be easily cut, the Phoenicians used
no artificial building material: they are not known to have built of
brick before the Roman period.

In Judea, while enormous, rough blocks were used in huge structures, the
houses were made of unburned brick, with ceilings of palm or sycamore
beams covered with a layer of hard earth. In order that the variations
in temperature should not be felt in the interior, the outer walls and
the roof had to be quite thick. All the dwellings were covered with flat
roofs surrounded by a parapet, and here people passed the night in
certain seasons. Most houses had only a ground-floor; but the residences
of the wealthy sometimes boasted of an upper story, and certain windows,
doubtless those lighting the women's apartments, were provided with
lattices similar to the _moucharabiehs_ of the Arab houses of the
present day.

The villages were generally built on the hill-tops, and the more
important of them were surrounded with fortifications. Jerusalem was the