Although it is often stated that Ghadames derives its name from the Roman town of ‘Cydamus’ founded on the site, and whose ruins are visible, archeological discoveries indicate that Ghadames was occupied as far back as the Paleolithic period² making it one of the oldest constantly inhabited towns of the Sahara³. In actuality, the Roman name of Cydamus itself appears to be a corruption of the name ‘Tidamensi’, an ancient Berber tribe of Fezzan⁴.

The architecture of Ghadames is uniquely suited to the harsh, desert environment which surrounds it: the town’s houses are constructed with limestone, mud and palm wood. The walls of these multi-story homes are whitewashed to deflect the sunshine, and provide excellent climate control by keeping the rooms cool in the summertime and retaining heat in the winter⁵.

The architecture of this town gives a sense of how prehistoric and traditional structures and settlements were built and how the communities lived. The domestic architecture was structured vertically with three floors each serving different purposes. For example, the ground floor was used for the storage of food and goods, and the second floor as living quarters for the family. Along the tops of these houses lie interconnected open-air terraces, which the women use to navigate the town, as a women only above ground network of rooftop streets. Men and children only utilise the ground level streets⁶.

Kabaw is a historic Berber town, situated along the peaks of the Nafusa Mountains, in the administrative region of Ghadames. Following liberation from Italian occupation after WW2, Kabaw was governed from Tunisia by the French, until finally being returned to Libyan control in 1951⁸.

Kabaw is abundant in traditional architectural buildings and is known for the four to five level high ‘Granary’, also known as ‘al Qasr’. The Granary which was once used for the storage of grain, oil and water, dates back over 700 years and sits upon a hilltop. Central to the Granary is an open courtyard. The building is constructed with the use of mud bricks, rock and gypsum, with the doors made from palm trunks⁹.

Gharyan is a town situated on a plateau in the Nafusah Mountain range, some 100km south of Tripoli, and is famous for its troglodyte caves, which are a local tourist attraction¹⁰. There are also similar cave homes outside of Yefran to the West of Gharyan.

The troglodyte cave houses of Gharyan are deemed to have been built over 700 years ago, by Jewish refugees, who were forced to flee the city of Tripoli, when it was invaded by the Spanish in 1510. The Jewish community who settled in Gharyan, started to build dwellings by excavating into the mountainside, which was fairly easy due to the soft limestone and marl composition of the mountain¹¹.