Ghirza was an ancient Berber farming community, located in Wadi Ghirza, about 156 miles south-south-east of Tripoli (see map below). The town was studied by Olwen Brogan and Dr E. Vergara-Caffarelli in 1952 and 1953. The town was later occupied by the Roman during their invasions of Libya.

 

 

 

Its archaeological remains include at least eighteen fortified farmhouses, with wells and cisterns to catch rain water, and many more smaller buildings nearby, the remains of a standard Berber olive-press, cemeteries and temples.The farmhouses are two- or three-storey buildings, built of rubble core and mud, and enclosing, like typical Libyan houses, an open courtyard. Current courtyards often include a water well, an olive tree, a palm tree and a small vegetable patch around the olive tree. They had doors, windows and balconies overlooking the courtyard. Although   presently there are no palm trees in the area, they were frequently pictured  in the sculptures in the mausoleums.

 

Also unique to Ghirza are the two groups of advanced mausoleum tombs, which are of high standard and built of limestone with a fantastic imagination and craftsmanship. Mausoleums (or mausolea) are monumental tombs of kings or powerful leaders. The Latin word mausoleum itself comes from the Tomb of Mausolus, King of Caria, at Halicarnassus.

 

The stones are perfect squares, with four classical pillars on each side, arches, stairs, ornamented with sculptured relives and rosettes. The mausoleum have a false door which symbolises the deceased's entry into the after-life.

 

The name Ghirza appears in several place-names of classical times, such as the Roman civitas Gurzensis and the Gurza of Ptolemy. Its chief Sun-God Ghurza, mentioned as Gurzil by Corippus, and Kurza by al-Bakari (11^th century AD), was a prophesy god, whose faceless mass was said to represent the image of the deceased in a seated position, and thus he is represented as the offspring of the Libyan prophetic god Amon.

 

 

 

 

There were about twenty small votive altars in the debris of the temple, on three of which were inscriptions in the ancient Berber script known as Tifinar (the Libyan Alphabet); most of which are still waiting deciphering. The destroyed temple was later rebuilt as a Berber house, with more inscriptions scratched on the plaster of its walls.