Ghadames

The old town of Ghadames is a walled maze of whitewashed earth on the edge of the Sahara in western Libya, close to where the borders of Libya, Tunisia and Algeria meet. Seen from the rooftops it is a single continuous mass of houses, and inside it is a shaded labyrinth: lanes run as covered tunnels beneath the upper storeys, lit by openings in the roofs, so that a person can cross much of the town without stepping into direct sun. Known as the pearl of the desert, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1986.

The design answers the climate, where July highs average around 41 degrees. The houses are built of mud brick, lime and palm trunks and divide their functions by height: stores at ground level, family rooms above them overhanging the alleys, and open terraces on top that were traditionally reserved for women. The old town was split among seven clans, each with its own district and its own square for festivals. Settlement around the spring may go back to the fourth millennium BC, and local legend explains its origin: the thirsty mare of a desert rider is said to have pawed the ground until water burst out, and the town was built around this Spring of the Mare.

Ghadames enters written history as the Roman Cydamus. The proconsul Lucius Cornelius Balbus campaigned here under Augustus, and a garrison was stationed in the town under Septimius Severus. By the sixth century it had a bishop; after the Arab conquest in the late seventh century it converted to Islam and became a key station on the trans-Saharan caravan routes, a role it kept into the 19th century. In the 1970s new housing was built outside the walls, and many families moved there, though the thick walls of the old houses kept them in use as summer retreats from the heat. Moustapha Akkad filmed interior scenes of Medina for The Message here.

Getting there

The old town lies in the oasis of Ghadames, about 460 km southwest of Tripoli in a straight line; the nearest larger town is Nalut, about 240 km away. Ghadames Airport (LTD) is about 20 km from the old town.