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Ghadames is an oasis lying close to the Libyan border with Tunisia and Algeria, about 700 km southwest of Tripoli. The city, which used to be an important station for camel caravans and for trade in gold and slaves, is almost engulfed within a wood of date palms. Not only does a high wall protect the city, the corners on the roofs of the clay houses rise so as to form triangles – a means of protection against one further danger: spirits of the dead would thus have difficulty, as the residents believe, in landing on those roofs. I am thus dragged into a labyrinth of narrow and roofed alleys and vanish into the dark, which makes the candle in my hand a vital navigational tool.
The region has already broken world records: 56 degrees in shade were measured here during the summer, but a sophisticated system of small apertures at the ceilings enables the flow of air and keeps balanced temperatures in one of the hottest regions of the earth: during the summer about 10 degrees less than outside the city, during the winter about 10 degrees higher. It is at the shaded squares that festivities and weddings are celebrated, but during ordinary days those serve as meeting places for men. Women come to benefit from the shaded squares and alleys only when the men pray in the mosques. In the remaining hours of the day, they are only entitled to move along paths on the house roofs.
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