North Africa, Ghorfa of Medenine, 19th Century
Ghorfa houses of Medenine. Medenine is the major town in south-eastern Tunisia, south of the port of Gabès and the Island of Djerba, on the main route to Libya. In pre-colonial times, Medenine was already the most important trading center in the south, attracting merchants from all over North Africa and even from Bornu, to the south of the Sahara. The Ksar housed the central granaries of the various nomadic Berber tribes of the region. A ghorfa is a vaulted room used by Berbers for storing grain. They are often stacked as multi-story structures, sometimes reaching four stories high. Traditionally, the rooms were grouped together as a ksar, a fortification used by Berber villages in the Maghreb to store large amounts of grain. F. Soler, circa 1880 and 1900.
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Photo credit: © Science History Images / Alamy / Afripics
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