The houch

Central courtyard of a menzel with a hina plant

The houch, the menzel living areas, are square or rectangular, with no windows to the outside. The windows usually open into an inner courtyard, around which are two to four dwelling blocks (dar) of varying size,^[3] usually covered by vaults and domes, which provide very effective thermal insulation against heat.^[6] The dar can be divided by internal partitions, doors, or simple curtains (kella), where one finds the sedda or doukkana (sleeping rooms), magsoura (small rooms), el-khzana (pantry), and mesthan or moust-han (small bathrooms without toilet).^[3] The doukkana, the winter bedroom, has a vaulted ceiling and has an ed-dokkana, a raised bench-like platform about 50 cm high, which serves as a bed. Next to one of its extremities is a wall niche (taga) that serves as a bedside table. In one corner there is a small orifice to the outside, the el-midhouaya, which allows to see the sunrise, that is, to know when it is time to get up. The moust-han has a rudimentary shower, consisting of a clay pot (el-briq), hung between two stakes above head height. In the el-khzana, olive oil, date palms, and cereals were kept in large amphorae (sefri).^[7] In the past, boys who married obtained their own apartment in the houch from their parents.^[3]

Underground olive oil winery in ruins

Reconstitution of part of a traditional houch at the Guellal Museum, whose building has the shape and style of a giant 'menzel'

The sqifa, located at the entrance, is the area of the menzel where its inhabitants gather and also serves to receive neighbors and less important visitors. For the more important visitors, wealthier families usually have a makhzin dhiafa, a block independent or attached to the houch, which often has an entrance to the outside.^[8] Another part of the menzel is the khouss, a construction made of palm trunks where the kitchen and the bathroom are located. The kitchen can also be a somewhat autonomous part, and is then called the matbakh. The bathroom with toilet is called knif or mihadh. The washing area, the houch el bir, where the pots of water - usually brackish - that is used in washing jobs that do not include detergents, are kept.^[9]

In some cases, in addition to these parts the houch has one or more ghorfas,^{[nt 1][6]} towers or square blocks higher than the rest of the houch, situated at the corners.^[7] Access to the ghorfas is by a rigid internal staircase without handrail,^[6] under which there may be a deep niche (el-mkhaba) where the et-tass was kept, a small amphora with a wide neck where barley flour used as a base for zammita (or zommita),^[2] one of the most traditionally eaten dishes in Djerba, especially at breakfast.^[7] During the hot season, the menzels caps are used as sleeping quarters because of their coolness. They are the only parts of the menzel that have small openings facing outward, judiciously oriented so as to capture the sea breeze, which cools the interior.^[7]

Furniture

The furniture is generally simple and austere. The beds are simple mattresses placed directly on top of mats (h'sira) or on masonry platforms or stools (sedda or doukkana). There are chests or large pots for storing clothes,^[9] marfaa (kind of coat hangers), sofra or mida (kind of low tables where one eats sitting on mats or long, low cushions called gaada). Food reserves were kept in large baked clay pots (khabia, tass, zir or sefri), manufactured centuries ago in the village of Guellala, which is also the source of all the traditional dishes of Djerba.^{[nt 2][10]}

Cisterns

In view of the low rainfall (less than 250 mm per year) and the consequent lack of drinking water, the Djerbans have gained the habit of building cisterns to collect and store rainwater through impluviums.^{[nt 3][11]} There are two types of cisterns: feskia or fesghia and majen or majel. The first ones are usually underground, rectangular or square in shape, and are located outside the houch. The second ones resemble huge, wide open carboys, and are mostly built inside the inner courtyard of the houch.^[9] The majen and feskia collect the rainwater that falls on the roof of the dwellings, terraces and courtyards, which are whitewashed with quicklime (jir) every year before the wet season in order to ensure some hygiene. This system of rainwater collection already existed in Roman times, and large cisterns were discovered in the ancient city of Meninx. In 1967 it was estimated that the area used by impluviums in Djerba was about 1,000,000 m².^[12]