Mourabitine Ksar

Like a small fortress built to defend a village, the ksar used to be a typical building of semi-nomadic Berber tribes in North Africa. Odd-looking edifices next to the ksars are ghorfas, usually built on hilltops, which were actually fortified granaries. These buildings are relics of an ancient, well-functioning, adequate lifestyle in an area where the protection of yearly, difficult-to-produce crops was the priority concern. Having a shared wall, these granaries of two, three or four storeys were suited to store large quantitiies of crops on a small floor area. The components, just like those of the edifices in Zimbabwe, adhere to a central courtyard, completely filling in a lane along the widening wall. They were built from locally available material – stone and adobe, or exclusively from adobe with roofs of stamped earth (pisé). The function of the courtyard was to offer a protected venue for loading and the exchange of commodities.