Aghorfa (Arabic:غرفة,lit. 'room') is a type of communalgranary found mainly in southern Tunisia.[1] Similar structures are also found in northeastern Libya.[2] They are associated in particular withBerber settlements in these regions.[2][1] They consist of a collection of vaulted rooms built in rows and stacked in multiple stories organized around an internal courtyard.
The Arabic wordghorfa (غرفة) refers in a more narrow sense to the individual rooms of the granary.[1][2] The granary as a whole can also be known as aksar (pl. ksour), the term used for fortified villages in the region.[2][3] Some similar fortified granaries in Tunisia are referred to by the termkasbah.[1]
The formation of the collective granaries in southern Tunisia and theNafusa Mountains of Libya can be attributed generally to the 14th century.[2] In more recent centuries, the number of ksour in southern Tunisia increased as local lifestyles became more uniform.[3] At one time, some 6000 ghorfas existed in Tunisia.[1] A large proportion of these have disappeared sinceTunisian independence in the 20th century,[1] as the rural economy in the region declined.[3] In the Nafusa Mountains, most of the ksour were destroyed in the 19th century when theOttomans suppressed a rebellion in the area.[2]
Ghorfa-type granaries consist of a series ofbarrel-vaulted rooms, each with a single door, built in rows and stacked on top of each other to form multiple stories. These are organized around an internal courtyard, usually quadrilateral in shape, from which the rooms are accessed. The tallest granaries can be up to four or five stories high.[1][2] The rooms were used to store grain, dates, and other food or animal products. The rooms at the ground level could also be used as living quarters for guards and animals. The rooms above ground level are accessed by external staircases.[1] Many of these structures were built using loose stones and clay.[1]
In Tunisia:
In Libya:
Ghorfas were featured prominently in the filmStar Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as the slave quarters ofMos Espa, home toAnakin Skywalker. These scenes in the film show ghorfas from several locations in southern Tunisia, including Ksar Ouled Soltane andKsar Hadada.[6]
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