The Ksar Draa

This fabulous fortress in the Sahara Desert of Algeria appears on several exotic destination travel sites, none of which tell us anything about it. In fact they all just repeat English translations (of varying quality) of the text on this French site, from which most of the photographs also come.

The site, 50 kilometers from the closest town (Timimoun), is remote and desolate, with dune fields stretching in every direction. Measurements I made on Google Earth give the size as roughly 100 by 70 feet (30x21m).

The name is uninformative; Ksar is just the north African version of the ordinary Arabic word for fortress, and Draa is the name for this part of the desert. The only information any of the travel sites offer is that the place may be a thousand years old (which of course means that it might not be), and that locals say it was once occupied by Timimoun's Jews. Which would be weird and wonderful, a Jewish caravanserai in the middle of the Sahara, but I can't think of any reason to believe the story. Some of the web sites also say that archaeologists have visited the site but that their investigations have not revealed anything substantive about the site's history, which I find bizarre; it's hard to imagine a habitation site of the past thousand years from which competent archaeologists couldn't learn something. This French site, to the contrary, says that if archaeologists ever do visit they will no doubt learn much about its past, so maybe it hasn't really been investigated at all and the manager of one of those travel sites just made it up and a bunch of others copied it.

I did finally track down a brief article in Maghreb Magazine that had a bit more information. (Or perhaps I should say, made a few more assertions, since I know nothing about the publication and the piece is unsigned.) You can get a better idea of the internal structure from the photograph above, which shows the double exterior walls and something of the interior. The interior walls are all adobe, which is the local tradition, with only the exterior wall built of stone. The unsigned article says that the structure dates to the 14th century, which seems plausible, and that its design is unique:

The ksar is made up of a labyrinth of narrow alleys, winding staircases, and hidden courtyards, all connected by a series of intricate arches and domes. The design of the ksar is not only aesthetically pleasing but also serves a practical purpose. The narrow alleys and tight spaces help to keep the buildings cool during the hot summer months, while the domes and arches provide stability to the structure. The Ksar Draa was built to accommodate the town’s inhabitants, and as such. It also includes a variety of living spaces, including houses, mosques, communal kitchens, and even a school. The houses are typically small, one-story structures with thick walls, small windows, and low doorways. The communal kitchens, or Zawiyas, are located throughout the ksar and were used to prepare meals for the town’s inhabitants. The mosque, which is located in the center of the ksar, is one of the largest and most impressive structures in the citadel.

I don't see an impressive structure in the center, and given that the whole thing is only 70 feet wide there isn't much room for anything impressive, anyway. But maybe the reporter was easily impressed. This article says nothing about Jews, supporting my suspicions about the local gossip on that score. (And this French site has "En l’absence de références écrites laissées par les historiens ou par les chroniqueurs d’antan, les spéculations en tous genres vont bon train," that is, in the absence of written records, people just make stuff up. Including, this site tell us, legends about treasures guarded by djinns.)

Anyway it is delightful to ponder that the earth still holds many fortresses and other sides stranded in the middle of nowhere, almost unknown to history