If a photo looks professionally taken, then that credit goes to Paul Woo or Francois DeAsis (check the @FJD in the bottom right corner)
For our second day in Libya, we woke up at 8am for free (and surprisingly hearty) breakfast on the rooftop of our hotel.
We then began our 2.5 hour drive southwest of Tripoli to Jebel Nafusa / Nafusa Mountains.
On the way there, we stopped for an espresso shot as a rest stop.
There’s a tank memorial between Tripoli and the Nafusa mountains, remnants of a battle here during the Libyan civil wars between rebel groups and Gaddafi’s forces.
I appreciate this form of recycling.
Across the street from the memorial, our guide was proud to show off the low gas prices here. This is oil country!
Our destination mountain (aka the meaning of “Jebel”) in Libya rises abruptly from the desert of Jefara/Sahel Jefara to a height of over 968 meters, leading us to the heartland of the Berber people of Libya and best represented by the 12th century fortified granary of Qasr al-Haj.
It’s tinier than the photos online make it seem.
Walking in past the foyer and mini-museum that shows all the tools used for the granary . . .
. . . you can say we felt like we walked into a small colosseum of trade. The intersections of multiple trade routes and caravans met here to exchange grain and food:
Serving as the granary for families from the surrounding area in return for quarter of their crops, this structure would be endowed as a waqf for teaching the Qur’an and Islamic related subjects to the local Berbers of the area.
There are 114 chambers in all, suggesting that there were either 114 families that subscribed to the usage of this granary when it was built, or used symbolically to reflect the number of Sura in the Qur’an. The latter theory has been generally accepted by villagers in the region nowadays.
There are currently 119 chambers after 5 were split into 10 due to inheritance disputes. Other changes since its initial construction include the addition of 29 cellars.
Even without handrails to keep you steady, you can climb to the top and hug the walls to walk the entire circumference of the granary:
Do(n’t) look down!
We then walked a few paces over from the granary to Tarmeisa/Etermessn.
Termeisa is an ancient stone Berber village that reminded me a lot of the one we’d find in Mauritania:
Don’t miss the Arabic and the universal Berber sign inscribed into the walls:
The edge of the village ruins clings off a narrow rocky outcrop overlooking a spectacular view of the Sahel/Desert Al Jefara:
As far as the eye can see:
Reminds me of the Edge of the World in Saudi Arabia:
We then stopped at a local villager’s house for a splendid carb-heavy Berber stew for lunch.
This meal is about to make us one big happy family.
Wait, let me get that tea for you…
After lunch we continued on to Gharyan.
- At time of posting in Jebel Nafusa, it was 25 °C - Humidity: 50% | Wind Speed: 19km/hr | Cloud Cover: desert clarity