Skip to content
SAGHRO

Culture & heritage·16 of 19

Igherman: fortified villages and granaries

Rammed earth and stone, several storeys, guarded stores: the architecture of permanent homes.

Building a rammed-earth wall (1955) — Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam), CC BY-SA 3.0

Confirmed by a verified source

Permanent homes, igherman (plural of igherm, ksour in Arabic), are fortified villages of earth and stone, often several storeys high, which also serve as collective granaries where each keeps his share of grain, under the watch of a guardian.

Hart describes Igharm Amazdar in 1961 as about a hundred houses “in the several-storied kasbah style” found throughout southern Morocco. The photographs of 1955 (building a rammed-earth wall) and 1935 (kasbah façades in Ouarzazate) show this raw-earth architecture.

Assisted translation, not validated

Terms

Sources — 2 sources cited · 2 independent documentary line(s)

  1. Hart, 1966 — p. 93Excerpts consulted · Academic research
  2. Wikipédia (français) — « Aït Atta » — section HabitationsFull text consulted · Encyclopedic synthesis
Historical photographBuilding a rammed-earth wall (1955)1955Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam)Probable attribution— Identification based on a published or institutional source, without independent confirmation.
Historical photographOuarzazate: façades of raw-earth kasbahs (c. 1935)vers 1935Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l'homme (MMSH, Aix-en-Provence), MédiHAL
Contemporary photographOld kasbahs of Nkobtéléversée en 2010Wikimedia Commons
Historical photograph“Irhrem Amazdar, dans le Sarhro” (J. Robichez, 1946)Prise de vue non datée (le catalogue situe les photographies du livre en 1937-1939) ; publication 1946J. Robichez, Maroc central (Arthaud, 1946) ; fichier fourni par le titulaire du projetProbable attribution— Identification based on a published or institutional source, without independent confirmation.