mod_rewrite Lesson - How To Make It Work

I learnt a hard lesson today on mod_rewrite. I haven’t had time to explore further to find the root cause. I present it as it is in the hope that it will help someone like me to solve their strange mod_rewrite problems.

I created a new website on a new domain which is hosted on the same server. I chose a directory not under document root. mod_rewrite wasn’t working despite my best effort to do everything under Sun.

The solution was to move it to a directory under document root. That’s it. A httpd restart and I am back in business. I would be grateful if someone can demystify the solution to me.