The Berbers, then the Arabs of Southern Tunisia, built many ksours, which are villages made of houses and of ghorfas, fortified against nomadic attacks. Ghorfa means room in arabic. These cells served to keep the crops of several years, and the biggest part of crop, which occupied the lowest part, was made of cereals. Cheese and olives were stacked in the upper part. Two holes in the walls served to blow fresh air into the cells. Each village had some 200 ghorfas, built on 1 to 6 superimposed levels. Tunisia had some 1500 ksours before World War II, but most of them were abandoned because people left them for more productive areas. Some of them are still partly occupied and other ones were transformed into tourist accommodations. Some ksour, near Tataouine, were used as sceneries for Star Wars. All comments welcome.

Les Berbères, puis les Arabes, du Sud tunisien ont construit de nombreux ksour (au singulier ksar), villages fortifiés contre les attaques de nomades. Ces ksour étaient constitués d’habitations et de ghorfas, ce qui signifie chambre en arabe. Ces sortes de greniers étaient destinés à stocker les récoltes de plusieurs années, notamment de céréales. Le grain occupait la partie inférieure, et dans la partie supérieure on stockait du fromage et des olives. Deux trous percés dans les murs assuraient un courant d’air. Chaque ksar compte en moyenne 200 ghorfas, comprenant d’un à six niveaux. Les ksour, au nombre d’environ 1500 avant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, ont souvent été abandonnés, les habitants étant partis dans des régions moins rudes. Certains sont encore très partiellement habités, d’autres ont été reconvertis en logements pour touristes. D’autres encore ont servi de décor de films, en particulier pour Star Wars, dont une partie du tournage fut effectué près de Tataouine. Commentaires bienvenus.

If you have enjoyed this photo you can also like this one, a fantasy scene composed by Elcet with the same ghorfas, bats and devils:

"Devil’s meeting"


Techdata: Canon EOS300D Digital Rebel with Canon 3.5-4.5/24-85 zoom at 35mm, 1/200 at f/10, aperture-priority automatic. In fact this image was composed of two, the sky was replaced by another one shot taken some minutes before, just at the same place; the ground surface was extended with the Clone Stamp Tool and Adjustment Layers were used. Postwork in Photoshop CS2.