Ksar

Ksar or qṣar (Arabic: قصر, romanized: qṣar), in plural ksour or qsour (Arabic: قصور, romanized: qṣur), is a type of fortified village in North Africa, usually found in the regions predominantly or traditionally inhabited by Berbers (Amazigh).¹² The equivalent Berber term used is ighrem (singular) or igherman (plural).¹

The Arabic qaṣr (قصر), frequently pronounced qṣar in the Maghreb, was probably borrowed from the Latin word castrum.¹³

Ksour or igherman are widespread among the oasis populations of North Africa, found in Tunisia,⁴ Algeria,⁵ and Libya,⁶ and are also found on the Djado Plateau and in the commune of Fachi in Niger.⁷⁸ They are sometimes situated in mountain locations to make defense easier; they often are entirely within a single, continuous wall.

Ksour in the Maghreb typically consist of attached houses, often having a fortified communal granary like those in Algeria, or the ghorfa and agadir types known in Tunisia and Morocco respectively, beside other structures like a mosque, hammam, oven, and shops.

The building material of the entire structure usually is adobe, or cut stone, desert salt and adobe. The idea of the ksar as a granary is a confused notion of two things: the granary itself, found within a ksar, and the ksar, a village, typically with granaries within it. Ksars form one of the main manifestations of Berber architecture.