Stah

The flat earthen roof terrace of a kasbah, dar, or ksar dwelling. The stah is built up over the primary palm or juniper beams as a layered assembly — palm ribs, reed mat, a thick bed of compacted earth, a lime-stabilised wearing surface — sloped to drain to clay or copper spouts at the parapet. The terrace is a working surface, used for drying produce, sleeping in summer, and access between adjacent units in dense ksour fabric, and the social geography of the upper terraces is its own distinct register of vernacular life.