Jabal Nafussa (Nafussa Mountain)

Nafusa Mountains is both one of the most scenic areas of Libya, yet one which is fairly easy to get to, as it starts just 50-100 km south of Tripoli. The area is not impressive in the sense of altitudes (the highest point is at "modest" 968 meters), but the landscape here is fantastically wild and varied. Many travelers with very limited expectations for Libya leave the Nafusa simply stunned. The Nafusa, which is a desert mountain range, in the way that agriculture has very different conditions depending on nearby mountains, is excellently paired by Akhdar Mountains in eastern Libya, which is clearly greener in its Mediterranean appearance.The roads of Nafusa Mountains does not invite to fast driving, but nor does the shifting landscape around you, complete with small farms, independent villages, and the Berber population, which was never completely absorbed by the Arab community.

Still many speak the Berber language, called Mazir (close to Tifinagh). Large parts of the population belong to the Khariji sect of Islam, the smallest of Islam's three main directions. I know you won't believe me, but snow is not all that uncommon up here in winter time, and all the year through, the area has a climate far cooler than what is around Tripoli, not to to say further south.Agriculture is fairly rich, especially when compared to the rest of Libya. Olives and grain are the main produce, but the figs and apricots grown here are of the highest quality.Out of many places to visit in the mountains, Gharyan appears to be on most itineraries. Yefren, Kabaw, Nalut, and Jadu are other main attractions. Ghadames which is often included in longer explorations of the Nafusa Mountains, is actually out of the mountain region, and involves quite a journey if weather is hot.

Qasr El Haj and Nalut

Qasr al-Haj in the Nafusa Mountains is a stunning structure, almost more impressive if you don't know its purpose. The accidental visitor may think it was a form of fortified village, in which families lived on top of each other, in rooms simply known as ghurfas. Rather it is a storage facility for a partly semi-nomadic and partly settled community. The qasr protected grains and everything else that might be stolen.Peoples moved around the area carrying only what were necessary for the everyday needs.The large square in the middle, served many purposes, market place or even space for locals should the community be attacked by strangers.There are exactly 114 ghurfas here, a number corresponding to the chapters of the Koran. There are three storeys above ground, and one underground. Many ghurfas are still in use by local farmers. Qasr al-Haj may be the most impressive ghurfa in Libya, challenging the very finest of Tunisia (see Ksar Ezzahra and Ksar Ouled Soltane).

Ghadames

Ghadames is one of Libya's highlights. As a matter of fact, it is a highlight of the whole of Sahara, often called "the jewel of Sahara", and was in 1999 added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, as one of 5 places in Libya.Ghadames is a tranquil old city, with covered streets that are both dark and quite cool even during summer. And of course, the color chosen is white. Ghadames represents popular engineering, and is the result of a complex knowledge on how to deal with extreme temperatures. The arrangement of the houses is far from casual. Every angle, every wall, every opening in the roofs over the alleyways, are parts of the same organism.Even if Ghadames still stands, the people were moved out of it from 1984 until 1986, into the modern settlement nearby. Only one family refused to abandon their quarters. But locals return to their old homes when summer becomes unbearable.

The settlement at Ghadames goes back at least 5000 years. Before that time, Sahara was greener, allowing different settlement patterns. The first historical information we have is from 19 BCE when the Romans occupied it, and named it Cydamus. The present old town is probably 800 years old; town centre had then moved around the oasis a few times. From the 18th century until 1874 was Ghadames an independent state, thriving from trans-Saharan trade.For a long time, trade lines across the Sahara, including the transportation of slaves, was the life line of Ghadames. Today the 10,000 people living here make a living out of agriculture, but tourism has become a new and important source of income.The Ghadames festival is staged through three days every September, bringing back life to the old town on the second day of the festival. People put on traditional dresses, and weddings are held as well as rites of passage for young men passing to adulthood.

Kabaw

While the old Kabaw village is almost all in shambles, and its inhabitants relocated to dull, new houses, the old village still has areas indicating how live once was.Most interesting, however, are the ghurfas or ksar, the granary built by the local Berbers, dating 700 years back in time. The inner courtyard has a tomb built around a local religious leader.In April, there is a festival in Kabaw, known as the Qasr Festival. Here Berber culture comes alive, but it is also a time for important events like weddings.

Gharyan

There are only a few sparse areas in Northern Africa that offers the kind of architecture that is guaranteed to fascinate virtually anybody, the troglodytes, dwellings dug vertically down into the ground. In the Nafusa Mountains, Gharyan, has some of the best examples, but unfortunately for the visitors, prosperity has made the inhabitants leave them for modern houses with air conditioning.A large part of the troglodytes have been left to themselves, and the only inhabitants here now are animals. There are a couple of the troglodytes that really present the true and impressive living conditions people managed to create just some decades ago. Still Gharyan is quite a bit behind Matmata of Tunisia in the qualities it offers.