The Ksar Ghorfa of Tunisia- Monochrome art photos of the grain storage ghorfa ksar of Ouled Soltane, Ksar Hedada and Ksar El Zahra Tunisia. Photos by Paul E Williams.
Berber Traditional Ksar Ghorfa of Tunisia – Monochrome Photos
Some of the most beautiful traditional Berber buildings in Tunisia are the ghorfa storage room fortified ksar found in southern Tunisia on the edge of the Sahara desert.
Ksar Ghorfa of Tunisia
For hundreds of years Berber nomadic traders used to cross the Sahara in the winter with trains of camels and return with luxury items to sell in Tunisian markets. With their profits the traders would then buy enough grain and rice to last a year. The problem then arose of where to store the grain and rice they had bought as nomads lived in tents. They could not carry a years rations so the question of what to do with the food was a big problem. The answer are ghorfa Ksars.
A Ghorfa is the Berber name for a vaulted store house and a ksar is a fortified village, or in this case fortified ghofas. The mud brick ghorfas are built on top of each other up to 4 storeys high. They surround a square accessed through a fortified gate. The entrances to the ghorfas are on the inside with a protective wall on the outside. The cross Sahara traders could store their food in the ghorfas knowing that it would be safe in the months they were away.
Star Wars & the Tunisian Ghorfas
The ghorfa of Tunisia may look familiar in the photos, especially if you are a Star Wars fan. Real fans will know that the planet Tetooine is named after Tatouine (French tataween) in southern Tunisia. This is because Ksar Ouled Soltane and Ksar Hedada, both featured in this photo gallery, are situated near Tatouine, and were used as film sets in Star Wars Phantom Menace.
Luke Skywalkers house was a real underground Berber house near Tatouine. The shots above ground of the desert plane below which the house is supposed to be, are actually on a Tunisian salt lake.
I was watching Life of Brian recently and the opening sequence with the wise men on camels was shot in Ksar Hedada.
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