Kabaw
Kabaw or Cabao ( Arabic كاباو, Central Atlas Tamazight ⴽⴰⴱⴰⵡ Kabaw ) is a small, Berber- inhabited place with approx. 1,000 inhabitants in the municipality of Nalut ( Libya ). An extremely imposing warehouse castle ( ksar ) is located in an elevated position and somewhat away from the village .
location
Kabaw is located at an altitude of about 690 m and about 30 km as the crow flies (about 65 kilometers by road) east of Nalut in the Nafusa Mountains . The distance to the northeast Libyan capital Tripoli is about 265 km.
Townscape
Unlike in Ghadames , the old district with its adobe buildings has been largely abandoned by its residents and is becoming increasingly dilapidated. In the new district there are modern houses in a uniform style with walls made of hollow blocks, ceilings and stairs made of concrete, doors made of sheet metal and satellite dishes on the flat roofs.
Ksar
Building history
The only attraction of the place is the multi-storey storage castle (ksar) , the large number of storage chambers (formerly around 200) suggests that it was built and used jointly by several villages. Originally, the entire building should have only been two or three storeys high; if necessary, additional storage chambers were simply added. In view of the lack of written sources, the age of the building can only be roughly estimated - it is estimated to be around 500 to 800 years. It is unclear whether there was an older predecessor. Securing work was carried out on the facility in 2000.
function
During the summer hikes with the herds of cattle (sheep and goats), durable food (grain, oil, dates, almonds, figs, nuts, etc.), but also household and farm equipment were deposited in the Ksar and guarded against attacks by wandering people Nomads or rival Berber clans secured. Each family had one, sometimes two chambers. Sometimes trade caravans also found shelter and protection in the ksar and - although there was not much to be had from the self-sufficient rural population - in some cases goods were exchanged or bought.
Building material
The entire building was built exclusively from the materials found on site (rubble stones, clay, palm trunks, etc.) and parts of it were plastered with clay. The plaster, which had to be renewed every few years, protected the walls of the Ksar from being washed out by sandstorms and rain.
investment
The storage castle is located on a rocky promontory high above a valley cut in the Nafusa Mountains. The outer walls of the facility are made of dry stone layers and almost form a circle. The part of the complex on the village side is either unfinished or collapsed; The side of the valley with its storage chambers, which are up to five stories high, is still quite well preserved.
architecture
The vaulted, inside only about 1.70 m high and about 2.20 m wide - windowless and therefore lightless - storage chambers ( ghorfas ) are arranged on several floors one above the other. The protrusions and recesses of individual components and chambers are interesting; this avoids an architectural severity of the building and at the same time increases the stability. The pedestals made of wooden planks and logs in front of the - often arched - entrances to the chambers were not reached with the help of ladders, but rather stepping stones set in the masonry. The wooden doors were secured with intricate wooden locks (later metal locks) - locks and wooden doors have all disappeared; sometimes they are for sale in the antique shops of the big cities.
mosque
The small, whitewashed, but otherwise completely unadorned building in the inner courtyard is viewed as a prayer room / mosque in which the guard or guards could pray. The construction is likely to be a later ingredient.
See also
More Ksour in northwest Libya:
literature
- Herbert Popp, Abdelfettah Kassah: Les ksour du Sud tunisien. Natural Science Society, Bayreuth 2010, ISBN 978-3-939146-04-9 (French)
- Joachim Willeitner: Libya. Tripolitania, Syrtebogen, Fezzan and the Cyrenaica. DuMont-Verlag, Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7701-4876-2 , pp. 139f.
Web links
- Kabaw / Cabao Photos
- Kabaw / Cabao - Photos + Text (Looklex, English)
Coordinates: 31 ° 51 ' N , 11 ° 20' E