Al-‘Arusi Family

Description (The direction towards Mecca (Qibla) is described as eastern and other directions are named accordingly)

The entrance from the street to the enclosure is through a gate facing west and leading to a small rectangular courtyard. The square main courtyard measuring ca 14 x 14 m is located north of the entrance space and is separated from the street by other tombs. On the south side of the main courtyard is a residential unit, and on the eastern side is the neo-Mamluk façade of a huge burial chamber. The façade is tripartite, strictly axially symmetrical, and decorated with faithfully copied motifs of Mamluk architecture. The full-heights entrance portal is set in a shallow recess topped with a pointed arch of a slightly horseshoe profile which if framed in knotted mouldings, with arabesque floral motifs in the spandrels. The portal recess is flanked by engaged corner columns with chevron-decorated shafts and deeply curved geometric motifs beneath muqarnas capitals. The rectangular entrance door has a monolithic stone lintel with a segmental relieving arch of joggled voissoirs; this arrangement is framed with knotted mouldings. Over the door is a rectangular window flanked with engaged colonnettes and above it, a fluted keel-arch conch. On each side of the portal is a tall recess topped with muqarnas frieze and containing a rectangular lower-level window with the lintel and its relieving arch framed with knotted mouldings, and above it, twin windows flanked with colonnettes topped with semi-circular arches and with an oculus above in a one-over-two arrangement. The window panes are divided with wooden lath into simple geometric pattern and glazed with coloured glass. The door –leaves and window shutters are decorated with geometric motifs in wooden joinery.
The burial chamber features a mihrab niche in the Mecca-facing wall and contains two richly carved marble cenotaphs and two undecorated marble tomb markers. In the wooden ceiling is an octagonal lantern covered with a wooden dome of lath and plaster over wooden ribbing.
The façade of the burial chamber is built of ashlar stone, the other walls are constructed of rough stone.
The single-storey residential unit on the southern side of the main courtyard is plain and undecorated.
The street façade is built of ashlar stone. The simple entrance gate has a semi-circular arch with a simple decorative wrought-iron grille above the door and is framed by flat pilasters with a simplified entablature. On both sides are huge rectangular windows, the northern (left) one set in a simple flat recess and fitted with a simple decorative wrought-iron grille, while the right one is set in a plain wall.