Ksar
Type of fortified village in North Africa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ksar or qṣar (Arabic: قصر, romanized: qṣar), in plural ksour or qsour (Arabic: قصور, romanized: qṣur), is a type of fortified village in North Africa, usually found in the regions predominantly or traditionally inhabited by Berbers (Amazigh).[1][2] The equivalent Berber term used is ighrem (singular) or igherman (plural).[1]
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Etymology
Locations
Ksour or igherman are widespread among the oasis populations of North Africa, found in Tunisia,[4] Algeria,[5] and Libya,[6] and are also found on the Djado Plateau and in the commune of Fachi in Niger.[7][8] They are sometimes situated in mountain locations to make defense easier; they often are entirely within a single, continuous wall.
Architecture
Ksour in the Maghreb typically consist of attached houses, often having a fortified communal granary like those in Algeria, or the ghorfa and agadir types known in Tunisia and Morocco respectively, beside other structures like a mosque, hammam, oven, and shops.
The building material of the entire structure usually is adobe, or cut stone, desert salt and adobe. The idea of the ksar as a granary is a confused notion of two things: the granary itself, found within a ksar, and the ksar, a village, typically with granaries within it. Ksars form one of the main manifestations of Berber architecture.
