rea of the city, where government
buildings are clustered, are wide and attractive; many parts of the city
are much like the rural villages. Tirana has become the most
industrialized city and continues to be a collecting and distributing
point for agricultural products of the area.

Centers for inland mountain valley or upland basin communities are
Berat, Elbasan, and Korce. They, like most cities, have changed little
in appearance and retain much of the flavor of nineteenth-century
agricultural life.

The typical mountain village, of 70 to 100 homesteads, is located on an
isolated slope among rocks and thin scrub-like vegetation. Only
footpaths link it by land with the outside world. During the summer
there is a drought period which requires that water use be limited to
drinking. Houses are clustered in the south, whereas in the northern
mountains they tend to be dispersed. Fields and pastures are located
some distance from the village. Water must be carried from a common
source, usually a spring. Mountain villages frequently are located at
1,300 to 1,600 feet above sea level. This is generally the line of
contact between the underlying impervious serpentine rock and layer of
limestone and the point where spring water comes to the surface.

At lower levels the villages are laid out around the collective or state
farms or enterprises, many of which were previously estates or
patriarchal settlements. Here the houses are more substantial, and the
fields or other place of work are near the village. Water is carried
from a common source. Open sewers run down the streets of some villages,
but this condition is gradually changing. Electric power has been
extended to about 70 percent of all villages, but other facilities and
amenities, except medical services, have been little improved since the
end of World War II.

LIVING CONDITIONS

The standard of living in 1970 was very low, and life was difficult for
the masses despite very modest improvements in living conditions during
the 1950s and 1960s. The standard of living was the lowest in Europe and
was improving at a slow pace because priority was given to industry, to
increasing the means of production, and to developing eventual
self-sufficiency in food production, especially of cereal foods. The
most widely felt improvements were in health services and in use of
electricity, which resulted from expanding the electrical network to
many villages.

Plans for the late