Moorish houses and lava shelters

Cave dwellers, O. Stone, 1887 The Moorish arrangement of a dwelling appears pre-eminent in suitability to a burning climate; for it affords in the interior court, such charming retreats, for man and choice plants from dusty winds and the blinding light outside. Nowhere else that in the shade and shelter of a whole environing house, in these lands swept by the constant Trade-wind, could such masterpieces of vegetation be produced, certain that we saw, when treading the interior galleries of verandahs, in many of these delightful mansions.

How different though, and how primitive, are the residences of some of the lower classes, under sheets of lava, which form a substratum for all the country around; and after passing under the town are broken down, just as they enter the sea. […] In his own hot and dry climate, with his all-defending cloak to wrap himself in, the Spaniards cares little about the artificial _agreméns _of his sleeping room; so no wonder, if in this island, where the climate is warmer and drier still, these lava-covered halls are numerously tenanted.

Charles Piazzi Smyth, Tenerife: An Astronomer’s Experiment (1858)