Fresh Water Anyone?

This photo was one I took looking down the cistern. Below is another shot as seen from the Arabic Room.

Rain water that would collect throughout the hotel would be filtered to the cisterns below the hotel and would be used for periods of drought when clean water was scarce. Though the hotel is only five-hundred yards from the Mediterranean Sea, drinkable water can't be found that way and often it would be stored for months. This also provided a way to wash floors, water plants, and other necessary tasks for which water is used in this country. Someday, I'll have to write about how they clean things over here. It would seem strange to an american, but after trying it in our villa here in Tripoli, I have to admit that it's very efficient.