Bab

A gate or principal doorway. In the kasbah and the ksar the bab is a critical defensive and ceremonial element — typically a single fortified entrance, sometimes set in a recessed bay flanked by towers, with carved wooden door leaves, a wicket within the leaf for daily passage, and a hooded vestibule (saqifa) inside. The decorative treatment of the principal gate is one of the most consistent indicators of patron status; the gates of Glaoua-period kasbahs in particular received elaborate plaster and tile work above the basic earthen wall surface.