Ghorfa

A ghorfa (Arabic: غرفة room) is a vaulted room used by Berbers for storing grain. They are often stacked as multistory structures, sometimes reaching four stories high. Traditionally, the rooms were grouped together as a ksar, a fortification used by Berber villages in the Maghreb to store large amounts of grain. A ghorfa in Malta could also mean a lonely room in a field, a bedroom, any kind of storage room, an animal shelter or other functional traditional rooms.

Multi-level ghorfas, as seen at Ksar Ouled Soltane in southern Tunisia

In popular culture

Ghorfas were featured prominently in the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as the slave quarters of Mos Espa, home to Anakin Skywalker. These scenes in the film show ghorfas from several locations in southern Tunisia, including Ksar Ouled Soltane and Ksar Hadada.

See also

• Fortified Granaries of Aures
• Gasr Al-Hajj
• Ksar Ouled Soltane
• Chenini
• Douiret
• Menzel (Djerba)

Sources

• Lonely Planet Tunisia, 3rd edition