Ksar
A
ksar is a
village consisting of generally attached houses, often having collective
granaries and other structures (
mosque, bath, oven, shops) widespread among the
oasis populations of the
Maghreb (northern
Africa.) Ksars are sometimes situated in mountain locations to make defense easier; they often are entirely within a single, continuous wall. The building material of the entire structure is normally
adobe, or cut stone and adobe. The idea of the ksar as a granary is a confused notion of two things, the granary itself, found within a ksar, and the ksar, which is a village, normally with granaries within it.
Ksar is an
Arabic word, more correctly transliterated as
qsar, singular, and
qsur, plural. The
Berber (amazigh) equivalent is
aghrem (singular) or
ighrem (plural). Ksar is generally translated as "Castle" in English, although the simplest rendering might be "fortified village," with the word sometimes taking on the meaning of "fort" depending on its specific function. The word is part of place names across
Morocco,
Algeria, and
Tunisia, — the region called the
Maghreb; and is particularly prevalent on the Saharan side of the various ranges of the
Atlas Mountains.
The Spanish term
Alcázar is derived from this
Maghrebi word, and means exactly the same thing.
