Landmarks from Nafusa Mountian in Libya

The world is full of places to discover. Towns, villages, cities, and countries. In every place, you can find landmarks to visit. They are what makes each place special because of the stories behind them. These landmarks represent cultures and they are mere evidence of the past and all the events that occurred at that time. They will stand still to witness the present too and a generation after another will learn about them and share stories of these places. In this article, I decided to write about landmarks from Nafusa Mountain in the west of Libya. I learned myself so much while doing the research and I would like to thank everyone who contributed with links, books, stories from their towns in order for this article to be complete. 

1- Nana Zorgh Mosque in Yefren

Nanna Zrogh, Om Geldin, these are all names for the same place. This is a landmark that distinguishes Yefren town in the Eastren Mountain. It was named after an old woman, Nanna Zorgh, in Aamazighi language the term Nanna means grandmother. She was born and raised in Yefren, she gave valuable lessons about patience, sacrifice, and giving. She was always the one to go to for guidance or help and she was always there for everyone. She prayed for others until she was called Tiwatriuen and in the Amazigh language it means Prayers. She took the top of the hill a place for her to pray Allah but little she knew that on this place a mosque was going to be built on the highest spot on Nafusa mountain. Any visitor can easily see the mosque.  

Nanna Zorgh was calm and forgiving. She never held a grudge against anyone. She was married to one of the town’s Sheikhs. She faced so many problems and issues at the beginning of her marriage by her step-daughters but she reacted to them with kindness and love. She never told her husband about how they treated her. His daughters died and her husband was left without any children. She was sad for him so she asked him to marry another woman and he refused. Later on, they were both blessed with four boys but they all died after a while. 

The environment in Yefren helped Nanna Zorgh to stand out as one of the town’s major figures as many other Muslim Amazighi women. For example, Nanna Tala, Nanna Maren, Om Yahya, Om Zaarour, and many other women who left an impact in Nafusa mountain.  

For the Amazigh community, mothers hold an important status and they are deeply embedded within the Amazigh philosophy for ages. In Amazigh theories, life means both Earth and Woman. With this theory, an Amazigh woman represents life and it can exceed men sometimes.  

2- Timogot Village  

For ages, this town was one of the most beautiful towns in Nafusa mountain that poets used to write poems about it. Sheikh Issa Alazzabi called it little Tunisia because it was rich in fruits and dates due to its abundance of water. Back in the days, women and men used to gather around Ein Tmugit. The town has three major families: Al-Azzaba, Almharwish, and Al-Gaed. Children used to get education from the mosque by reading and writing verses from the Quran. 
There are many other landmarks within this village, for example, Nanna Slima mosque was famous in this down. You can also find Alazzaba olive oil mill and Al-Mharwish olive oil mill as well. There is Abu-Leith praying spot or Abdelhamid Genawi praying spot who used to stop by and pray in this town before going up to Jadu. There are also Roman ruins which indicates that the town is very old. There are two main roads to enter the town, southwest, and northeast roads. The town was built mostly by Alazzaba family and this family members were mostly known for construction work.  

  

3- The Storage Castle

It is located in the center of the old city of Nalut. It has nearly 300 rooms. It was used to store the goods of families in Nalut. There are no stairs in the castle, only wooden blocks that are attached to walls which enables the entry of these rooms. They use these rooms to store wheat, oil, and grains which were enough for a single family for the entire year. There was a security guy but his presence and absence didn't change anything because no one was going to steal from his neighbor and this shows the trust among people at that time. According to the shortage of information, it is not detailed when was this castle built but it is suggested that it was built during the Ottomans era.  

4- Gusbit Siffit  

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=423782014446526&id=410464445778283

This is a landmark that my hometown is known for. Sadly I couldn't find major information but the artist Ziad Alhemdi designed a poster of this landmark with the following information: Qasbat Safeet is an ancient Roman tower located in the Dahir Alqal’ a area of Nafusa Mountain, according to researchers it dates back to more than 700 BC which is approximately 2700 years ago. The tower is located on a high plateau in the area of Dahir Alqal’a and overlooks a vast expanse of the neighboring areas, the tower was most likely used as a watchtower to observe the Roman farms located in that area which was famous for its olive groves and grape farms, this is apparent through the grape leaves engraved on the rocks of the ancient tower.