Kabaw is another Berber settlement along the tops of Nafousa
Mountain, in the way from Jado towards Nalut, and ultimately
down to the desert road towards Ghadames. It is an old
mountain village, rich in traditional architectural buildings
and narrow roads along the cliffs. Kabaw is also the home of a Berber
Qasr Kabaw (Kabaw Castle) from the outside - the high walls at the back of the photo.
Qasr Kabaw: an interior view.
An interior view of the Castle of Kabaw.
Fursta
Fursta is a small Berber village of about 5000
people, located in Nafousa Mountain, between
Tamzin (Tumzin) and Kabaw and south of Tiji.
The castle, suitably located at the highest point, was
thought to be at least eleven hundred years old. There
are ancient and prehistoric temples discovered nearby,
but there are no studies dedicated to unraveling their
mystery or function and as such they remain as they were
abandoned thousands of years ago.
There is also a watch tower, which originally was
used to look out for and warn of strangers approaching
the village.
The castle (ghasru)
is an ancient castle originally used to store
the extra food for the months ahead, like
grains from the harvest, olives and olive
oil, palm dates and salt. The castle wall
is about 15 metres high and is accessed via
a south door or gate.
The castle is built with stones, gypsum
and red mud, and the roofs of the chambers
are made of palm trunks and olive branches,
covered with a water-proof mud layer.
It is divided into two streets: on the left
there is the lower street, containing a number
of floors of storage chambers; and the upper
street on the right, which in turn is divided
into two streets: a right, low street, and
slightly higher street on the left
Then there is the guards room by the entrance,
where the guard keeps the keys to all the
rooms. Each room or chamber has a door and
a lock both of which were made locally. This
allows each individual or family to store
their surplus supplies in a safe place, and
therefore the castle is a form of an ancient
bank: a food bank. There are about 103 rooms
in the castle, 89 of which are still useable.
The rain water from the roof of the castle
collects in a cistern (or an underground
storage chamber, locally called 'majen')
just outside of the castle. These are very
common in North Africa.
Tkhabit (clay jar) for storing food and oil.
The big jars ('tkhabit'), made of clay, are usually
used for storing figs, dates and olive oil,
while grains are stored inside the rooms
in small compartments built within the rooms.
These compartments, which are also found
in modern Berber houses (built as recent
as 1960s), are basically a
short wall (to one's waist or slightly higher)
built across the room from one side to the
other, leaving behind a small compartment
for storing grain. The reason for this I
presume is that the grains need to breathe
and stay in contact with fresh air: preserved
at room temperature.
أمازيغ بالعربي تاريخ كاباو الجزء الأول
Tamazight in Arabic: History of Kabaw (Part 1)
