In the Nile Valley and desert oases south of Cairo-Upper Egypt-surviving domestic buildings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries demonstrate a unique and varied strand of traditional decoration. Intricate patterns in wood, iron, or plaster adorn doorways, balconies, windows, and rooflines in towns and villages throughout the region.<br><br>One of the most distinctive cultural features of these traditional homes is the decorated wooden balcony-screen-with jigsaw-cut patterns often based on creative repetitions, inversions, and mirrorings of the Arabic letter <em>waw</em>-which was designed to veil the residents from public view while allowing them to take the air and watch the outside world go by.<br>Here, Ahmed Abdel Gawad presents a wide range of these exuberant and largely unknown designs, in both photographs and detailed architectural drawings, for the use and appreciation of designers, decorators, artists, and lovers of vernacular architecture.