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Ghirza
The route to Ghirza, Libya, from Qaddah'yah: requires a 4WD vehicle;
broken rocky tracks.
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.

Mausoleums From Ghirza, Libya.
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.

This Ghirza Mausoleum, currently housed at Assaraya Alhamra
Museum in Tripoli, Libya.
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 (11th 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.
Berber Tifinagh Inscriptions, Ghirza, Libya.
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.

Tomb Door, Ghirza, Libya.
This door was found in a tomb,
and thought to help the soul enter the tomb to visit the body of
the deceased; probably to keep unwanted stray souls away from
the body of the deceased king or queen. |