Moroccan riad been bought by foreigners. This foreign interest has brought new challenges but the investment has helped with the restoration of the UNESCO site and has helped revive many of the handcrafts and artisan trades that were gradually being lost before this trend. Many of the restored riads in the districts of Mouassine and Lakssour offer the finest examples of restoration as historically these areas contained many of the grand palaces from Marrakech's Saadian period. Moroccan riad A riad () is a type of traditional Moroccan house or palace with an interior garden or courtyard. The word riad originates from the
Courtyard neighborhood Courtyard neighborhood Courtyard neighborhoods are Jewish neighborhoods built in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The inward-facing and defensible traditional urban housing of the Near East, ordinarily occupied by an extended family, was adapted in these cases to serve a close-knit but genealogically unrelated community. Courtyard neighborhoods were built around a large courtyard. A surrounding wall protected against hostile outsiders. Most of the houses were close together, with one gap that was easy to defend. The courtyard typically holds a neighborhood cistern. Such neighborhoods reflected the residents' communal organization. Typically, the apartments surrounding the