Why do riad rooms only have windows facing inward?
The short answer
Privacy. If windows face inward, no one on the street can see in. The family's life happens around the courtyard, visible only to the sky and the household.
The courtyard gives filtered light that shifts through the day, cool air drawn through natural convection, the sound of the fountain instead of motorcycles. The rooms are not dark — they're lit from a private sky.
The windowless exterior wall doubles as thermal mass — unbroken earth or stone, sixty centimetres thick, absorbing heat all day. No window means no weak point in the insulation, no gap for street noise, no entry for dust.
The richest houses in Marrakech are invisible from the street.