Traditional Building Materials and Techniques in Palestine

Building Techniques in Palestine are influenced by the materials available domestically as well as techniques in neighboring countries. In general, there are four main kinds of building materials, which are widely available in Palestine. These are mud or adobe; concrete, concrete block and cut stone .These kinds of building materials can be used individually or together with each other to form the structure of buildings. At the beginning of this century and in many villages, mud or adobe were used to construct houses. In many cases, houses were constructed with dry stone and plastered roughly on the outside with mixture of mud and ashes. The roof was constructed sometimes from branches or brushwood covered with mud. It described the way in which the roof was constructed in many Palestinian cities as in city of Jericho, where most of the houses were constructed with four arches to carry the roof. Mud and adobe are widely used in many Palestinian areas to construct the houses.