Agadir
A fortified collective granary, particularly in the Anti-Atlas region of southern Morocco, used to store grain, oil, and valuables for surrounding communities.
The agadir (plural igoudar) is a fortified collective granary specific to the Anti-Atlas and Souss regions of southern Morocco. The form is distinct from the kasbah and the ksar in both function and morphology: it is not a residence, but a storage institution, and its architecture is organised around the protection of grain, olive oil, and valuables rather than people.
Igoudar are typically built on defensible ground — hilltops, ridges, escarpments — with a single fortified entrance. Inside, hundreds of small storage cells (ghorfa in Arabic, similar to the cells of the Tunisian ksour) are stacked in rows around a central courtyard. Each cell belongs to a family from one of the surrounding settlements. A guardian (amin) is appointed by the village assembly to manage access and resolve disputes.
Materials vary regionally. In the harder geology of the Anti-Atlas, stone is more common than pisé; in the softer ground further east, adobe and earth predominate. Roofs are typically palm-wood and earth, like the rest of the southern Moroccan vernacular.
The agadir tradition declined sharply across the twentieth century. Cash crops, monetary economy, mechanised storage, and the dissolution of collective land management eroded the institution; many igoudar are now ruined or abandoned. A small number have been documented and partially restored, but the broader landscape of fortified granaries is among the most endangered building types in southern Morocco.
The city of Agadir takes its name from this building type — the modern city was founded near the site of a major historical granary.