Old Libyan Doors (www.door.ly)

The Beauty of Old Doors

Many times, when we pass by old houses in towns it struck our imagination the beauty of all their old wooden doors. We can feel and see the artistic touches and diversity of their designs. Some of the doors with their straightforward artistic touches bring extraordinary beauty, while others are more complicated. They can be considered a unique work of a geometrical art. We can also observe a coordination in sculptured lines, sculptured ornamental shapes and sculptured figures on wood which indicate the carpenter’s imaginative style. Besides beauty the old doors and the entries provide the beholder with information about the period of their design and the type of their material and substances.  Dwellers of mountain areas , for instance,  use wood of  olive trees for their doors , whereas Southerners use palm trees.

 Old doors are useful at performing the behavioral social studies of the society of that time showing the viewer the artistic thought and the skilled hands which engraved such doors, Moreover, they portrait the cultural backdrop behind that admirable imaginative art.

Because of the distinguishing features of the old Arabian designed doors they become nowadays desirable and historical artistic works by many antique collectors and international museums. There is an increasing demand for such doors in the last decades  because of their design differences, varieties of raw materials and  the multiple colors  of each area and era.

The doors usually keep intruders away and work as guards against burglars, but the most important aspect of all, they provide the dwellers with the necessary privacy they certainly need. However, most of the old civilizations consider doors to be a part of their welfare and for this reason carpenters spend a lot of time engraving and decorating those  doors to be beautiful facades  of their houses or castles to impress  their visitors and astonish them.

This web site (www.door.ly ) shows the beauty of old Libyan doors  with their diversities so that the browsers will find  a collection of pictures from a different Libyan cities to enjoy and feel the sleeping beauty.

Old windows are not different from old doors.  They are the artistic frame  of the esthetic picture for the houses. They are also subject to decay and oblivion.

Finally, though I am not specialized in the history of art and architecture I am attracted by the beauty of old doors.  Knowing that the beauty of objects is in the eyes of the beholders, I shall try to awaken such a beauty to hug the browsers and all art admirers.

Dr Altaher I. Altabet

Visit Old Libyan Doors Gallery at www.door.ly

This web site nominate  for World Summit Award (The Best in E-Content & Creativity) of year 2009 in Mexico by Libyan Higher Education Authority as the best of libyan web site in topic of e-culture.