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casbah

casbah

1 9.9
An old part of a North African city with narrow winding streets and a fortress
  • noun
  • /ˈkæz.bɑː/
: casbah
  • On Sunday, October 9, 2011, we drove to the casbah, the oldest part of Algiers dating back to the Ottoman era.
  • Casbah rocks
  • Welcome to the Casbah
  • the old Casbah

Examples

  • Sidi N takes us on a tour of an old, nearly vacant casbah and an abandoned Jewish quarter.

  • Now we must watch our steps, in every sense of the word, as we wind our way to the casbah.

  • So what's happening with the casbah this week?

  • Frost will be meeting a group of us here... and then walking through the casbah.

  • Seen from a bird's eye view, the Casbah is a great staircase.

  • The grand socco is the gateway to the Medina where you could find the Casbah, which means fortress by the way.

  • Known for its tight and winding streets, the Casbah, or Muslim section of the city, presented perfect territory for asymmetrical urban warfare amid its population of 80,000 Algerians.

    Blog text (4)
  • Inside the casbah, narrow streets followed curving paths, guiding the traveller through whitewashed buildings.

Synonyms

kasbah
vscasbah
1 9.7

An old walled part of a North African city with narrow streets

is the same meaning but written as an alternate spelling

Surface Forms

casbah singular
casbahs plural

Etymology

Casbah comes from the Arabic qasaba, which meant 'citadel' or 'fortress', the strong centre of a town, so today casbah means the old, often fortified, part of a North African city.