Old Town of Ghadames

The old town of Ghadames is an oasis settlement in western Libya whose roofs form a second, private town above the streets. Houses are built of mud brick with palm-trunk timber, and their open roof terraces were reserved for women, while the streets below are largely roofed over.

Construction

Walls are mud brick on stone foundations, finished with lime. Palm trunks, other woodwork and masonry complete the structure, and building materials have traditionally been reused. Most houses have two storeys: the ground floor for stores, the upper floor for the family, and above that the open-air terrace.

Two levels of town

Ghadames is often described as having a vertical division of public life:

• Roof level: open-air terraces reserved for women, giving them privacy, and also used by children. Compact roofs are enclosed by high parapets.
• Street level: public spaces, mostly covered, served as meeting places for men and children. Alleys pass beneath the houses and form an almost underground network, lit and ventilated by regular openings in the roof called tinawt or klava.

Residents who moved to new houses built outside the old town from the 1970s onward still return in summer, because the old town gives better protection from the heat.

History

Ghadames was occupied by the indigenous Phazanii from at least the late first millennium BC and has served trans-Saharan trade for at least 2,000 years. It had an estimated population of about 10,000 in 2011, but the old town itself was depopulated during the 1990s.

Heritage and threats

The old town was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986 and placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2016, with Libya's other World Heritage sites. It is protected by Law No. 3/1994. UNESCO lists changes in water supply, humidity, temperature and population, as well as heavy rains and fire, as threats. Its management plan includes the safeguarding of traditional construction techniques.