Qasr Al-Haj: an ancient vault

One of the finest examples of Berber architecture is Qasr Al-Haj, located on the Tripoli-'Aziziya-Al Jawf route in Libya, about 130 km from Tripoli. Built with bricks and clay, this circular earth-coloured building is featureless from the outside, with a door that leads to the large courtyard inside. Surrounding the courtyard are rows of small windows arranged in three storeys that look like open catacombs stacked one on top of another or a fortified village at best.
‘Qasr’ is an Arabic word for castle and ‘Haj’ means a pilgrimage. Haj is the annual pilgrimage undertaken by Muslims to Mecca—a trip that ideally has to be done by all Muslims at least once in their lifetime. During the 12th century, Qasr Al-Haj was a place where pilgrims who went on Haj stored their things before they went, like modern airport locker rooms or bank vaults, so they won’t be weighed down with too many things during their trip.


Qasr Al-Haj was later used as communal granary and olive oil storage rooms, for villagers who did not have enough space at home to store these staples. The building originally comprised of 114 chambers that corresponded to the number of chapters in the holy Quran. Each family had a space in that building where they could keep food and grains for safe keeping. It was in use even as late as the 1960s.