When we first went into old Ghadames in the evening, there was hardly anyone around, and none of the houses were open; so we felt very lucky to find a house open for inspection early the next morning. This is the living space, on the second floor; there’s bedrooms and storage rooms coming off this main room, plus the Al-Qubba, the room where a woman received her husband on her wedding night, and where she greeted visitors when she was in mourning after her husband died. You wouldn’t think they had the space to devote an entire room to two such rare occurrences; once it would have been a special tent, I guess? From here, stairs go to the roof, a whole other living area, particularly in winter and on summer nights. Below this main floor is the ground floor, devoted to the entrance hall and more storage, particularly for water to keep it cool.
I love the decorations, the special-purpose niches – this one is for the tea set, this other is for toys, spices, bowls etc – and the mirrors used to reflect the scant light from the skylight above.
On the outskirts of the city are these uncovered lanes and gardens. This lane includes the water transport canal, regulated by a man in the al-kadus niche in the main square who would ensure water was distributed fairly to each district. The kadus was a large bottle which would fill from the spring and then be released into the appropriate district’s canal; the time it took to empty was so regular that time was measured for the city by calculating how many kaduss had passed since sunrise.
Ghadames is another great place for doors. They’re usually made from half palm trunks.
Often, particularly near mosques, doors are covered with these studs which means the occupant has done the haj pilgrimage to Mecca. Red, green and yellow are the colours of Ghadames.
I also loved the doorknockers; there was one on display in the little tourist shop in the main square, but it, like other very cool things such as an old water jug and an oil lamp, were not for sale. Damn them for not selling off their heritage, those bastards.
The best thing about driving there, so that we went into the old city for a few hours in the evening and then again the early morning, seeing maybe three other tourists each time? Walking out for the drive home, and passing tour group after tour group after tour group, a hundred tourists or more only just beginning their tours of the city... A few more years, and it’ll be difficult to have that peace and space to look around.
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And just to add to the Captain's comments on a more life in Tripoli front;
The Captain has failed to mention how after 15 years of playing no team sport whatsoever, and me playing basketball for the last 15, she is a better shooter than I am at the local netball games every Saturday. Does that seem right to you?
We went down to the main Tripoli market on the weekend to try to find bits for reticulating the garden. What we found down there though was little tortoises for sale. They're pretty well armoured so the dog shouldn't eat them, so we're considering getting one or two as pets. Particularly since the conditions we could offer them have got to be better than their current arrangements.
Had my first dream about pizza last night. What's worse is I remember one of the pizzas on the menu was specifically designed for geologists. Can't remember what it was exactly, but there was a lot of meat and plenty of chilli. In terms of pizza withdrawels, I can't get out to Malta fast enough. But what happens if they don't have good pizzas there...Tense times.
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