KsourEarthen heritage archive

Synthesis archive · Saharan-Maghreb

A synthesis archive of earthen architectural heritage across the Saharan-Maghreb region.

Ksour aggregates and structures the published institutional and academic work on the kasbahs, ksour, igherman, and earthen settlements of Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Mali, and Niger. Phase 1 is Morocco-deep; other regions grow as the corpus deepens.

Open the atlas Building types
Every brick is one entry, laid in the colour of its kind: 24 sites, 5 building types, 55 words of the trade, 12 sources, 6 institutions, 7 people, 6 dates and 1 essay. 116 bricks so far, across 7 countries, and the wall keeps rising. Hover a brick to read its name.
Pl. I. Composite elevation of a pre-Saharan ksar seen from the oasis: rampart and corner towers, baffle gate, kasbah, minaret. Schematic, not to scale.

I. Typology

Five ways of building in earth

The archive’s vocabulary starts with building types. A kasbah is not a ksar; an agadir is not a granary in the European sense. Each plate shows the type, not a particular site.
  1. PLAN

    Fig. 1

    Kasbah

    قصبة · Tighremt

    Elevation and plan: four corner towers around a courtyard.

  2. N050 m

    Fig. 2

    Ksar

    قصر · Igherm

    Plan: a walled village, one gate, lanes branching into dead ends.

  3. Fig. 3

    Tighremt

    قصبة · Tighremt

    Elevation: a single tower house, tapering, decorated near the top.

  4. Fig. 4

    Agadir

    إيگودار · Agadir

    Elevation: storage cells stacked behind a single guarded door.

  5. Fig. 5

    Igherm

    قصر · Igherm

    Elevation: a fortified house-cluster climbing a slope.

All 5 building types →

II. Atlas

Where the earth still stands

24 documented sites across 7 countries, 11 of them inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Each point opens a catalogue entry with condition, period, materials and sources.
15°W10°W5°W0°5°E10°E15°E15°N20°N25°N30°N35°NAtlantic OceanMediterranean SeaSAHARANigerDrâaAgadezAït Ben HaddouBeni IsguenCheniniChinguettiDjennéGhadamèsGhardaïaKasbah AmridilKasbah TaourirtKsar Ouled SoltaneKsar TissergateMatmataOuadaneOualataSijilmassaSkouraTamdaghtTamegrouteTamnougaltTelouetTichittTimbuktuTimimounDOCUMENTED SITEUNESCO WORLD HERITAGE
Pl. II. Index map of documented sites, equirectangular, simplified coastline.Open the interactive atlas →

One brick for every site

  • Morocco10
  • Mauritania4
  • Algeria3
  • Tunisia3
  • Mali2
  • Libya1
  • Niger1

III. The archive

Seven modules, one graph

Every entry links to the others it touches: a site to its building type, its sources, the institutions that documented it. Nothing is a dead end.
  1. 01Typology
  2. 02Atlas
  3. 03Library
  4. 04Actors
  5. 05Glossary
  6. 06Timeline
  7. 07Essays

IV. Entry points

Where to begin

Glossary

Library

Essays