caravanserai

IPA: kˈɛrʌvænzɝˈaɪ

(chiefly historical) A roadside inn, usually having a central courtyard where caravans (see sense 3) can rest, providing accommodation for travellers along trade routes in Asia and North Africa.
(by extension) A place resembling a caravanserai (sense 1) as being a place for resting temporarily, or a meeting place (especially one that is busy, or where people of different cultures encounter each other).
(by extension) Synonym of caravan (“a convoy of travellers, their cargo and vehicles, and pack animals”)
(by extension, archaic) A hostelry, an inn; also (humorous), an (upscale) hotel.

Examples of "caravanserai" in Sentences

At the caravanserai is a traveller who says he hails from the Pishin
An inn of the Oriental pattern, often called caravanserai in books of travel.
(Jer 42: 1-22). habitation to Chimham -- his "caravanserai" close by Beth-lehem.
Here we were to stay the night at a kind of caravanserai, set apart for emigrants.
The gardens to the north-east contain a caravanserai, which is fairly well kept and comfortable.
a caravanserai is a picture of the world; men come in and go out of it, and no account is taken of them.
I am inspired this week to praise the "caravanserai" because it is where we all met in the age before steamships and aircraft.
[FN#453] In northern Africa the "Dár al-Ziyáfah" was a kind of caravanserai in which travellers were lodged at government expense.
The caravanserai is a big, commodious affair, a quadrangular structure of brick surrounding fully an acre of ground, and with a small open space outside.
There were some 300 habitations in Agdah, the principal one with a large quadrangular tower, being that of the Governor; but both the Chappar khana and the caravanserai were the filthiest we had so far encountered.