Photo 1040(61)

Genre: Architectural Photography

View of interior court. Unsharp. Reproduced in W.S.A. Lockhart and R.G. Woodthorpe, 'The Gilgit Mission, 1885-86' (Eyre and Spottiswoode, London, 1889), facing p. 88, there captioned, 'Central Court, Apsai.' 'The villages Shui, Apsai, and Shidgol resemble forts rather than villages. Their plan is an irregular four-sided figure, the houses being built contiguously round a central court, the only entrance to which is through a large door capable of being sngly closed and secured from the inside in the event of attack. The houses consist of a basement and one, or two, stories above; the outside walls presenting only flat faces of mud and stone, with framework and ties of timber, broken up in the upper rooms by numerous very small windows; inside, overlooking the courtyard, are picturesque wooden verandahs, the rooms opening on to them. The houses are two rooms deep; the rooms facing outwards are very dark, receiving their light only from the little loop-holes, mentioned above, or through the doorway communicating with the other room, which is lighted from the balcony...There is a good deal of carving about the verandahs and balconies, which look very well from the court below, and remind one somewhat of the courtyards of the old inns immortalised by Dickens...'

[Albumen print, 278x216mm].

Subjects = forts