Nestled in the heart of the Nalut District in northwestern Libya lies Ghadames, a captivating oasis Berber town that whispers tales of resilience and ingenuity through its labyrinthine streets and mud-brick buildings. Steeped in history and surrounded by the vastness of the Sahara Desert, Ghadames stands as a living testament to the harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature, showcasing the enduring beauty of sustainable architecture and vernacular building concepts.

Ghadamès is one of the oldest and most celebrated Saharan cities, also called the ‘Pearl of the Desert’, (Jawhart Al-Sahra) in Arabic. It has played a key role in the cultural and economic life of the region as an important and peaceful hub for caravan trade as part of the trans-Saharan network.

Ghadames, also known as Ghadamis, has long been celebrated for its unique architectural heritage, characterized by its distinctive mud-brick structures, narrow alleyways, and intricately designed courtyards. The town’s layout, with its interconnected buildings and covered passageways, serves as a natural defense against the scorching desert sun and sandstorms, while also fostering a sense of community and solidarity among its inhabitants.

A Lesson in Sustainable Architecture

At the heart of Ghadames’ architectural marvel lies the ingenious use of locally sourced materials, primarily mud, which offers natural insulation against extreme temperatures. The mud-brick construction, known as “tutufa,” not only regulates indoor temperatures but also provides a sustainable solution to the challenges posed by the desert environment.

By harnessing the thermal mass properties of mud, the buildings in Ghadames remain cool during the blistering heat of the day and retain warmth during chilly desert nights, without relying on modern heating or cooling systems.

The traditional architectural design of Ghadames prioritizes passive cooling techniques, such as narrow streets and shaded alleys, which promote natural ventilation and airflow. Courtyards, adorned with lush vegetation and cascading fountains, serve as tranquil retreats, offering respite from the relentless desert heat while promoting biodiversity within the urban landscape.

Lack of funds to preserve Ghadames and conflict in the region has led to the deterioration of the site reports UNESCO.

UNESCO says it is one of the oldest pre-Saharan cities and an outstanding example of a traditional settlement. Its domestic architecture is characterized by a vertical division of functions: the ground floor used to store supplies; then another floor for the family, overhanging covered alleys that create what is almost an underground network of passageways; and, at the top, open-air terraces reserved for the women.

In an era marked by rapid urbanization and the proliferation of modern construction techniques, the preservation of ancient building techniques found at Ghadames assumes paramount importance, despite lack of funds or conflicts in the Middle East. The town stands as a living testament to the sustainable practices of generations past, offering invaluable lessons in resourcefulness, adaptability, and environmental stewardship.

Passive air conditioning in Ghadames

The mud-brick construction techniques employed in Ghadames offer valuable insights into the potential of vernacular building concepts to address contemporary challenges, including climate change and resource scarcity. By harnessing locally available materials and traditional building methods, communities can reduce their carbon footprint, minimize construction costs, and create structures that seamlessly integrate with the surrounding ecosystem.

Vernacular building techniques in North Africa

Vernacular building techniques in North Africa reflect centuries of adaptation to the region’s climate, culture, and available resources. Here are ten leading vernacular building techniques commonly found in North Africa:

1. Adobe Construction: Utilizing sun-dried mud bricks, adobe construction is prevalent across North Africa. Adobe bricks, made from a mixture of clay, sand, water, and sometimes straw, are stacked and dried in the sun to form walls. This method provides excellent thermal insulation and is particularly suited to hot and arid climates.
2. Rammed Earth: Rammed earth construction involves compressing moistened earth into solid walls. This technique is durable, environmentally friendly, and offers good thermal mass, making it suitable for regions with varying climates, including North Africa.
3. Cob Building: Cob construction involves mixing clay-rich soil with straw or other fibrous materials to create a thick, malleable mixture. Builders then hand-sculpt this mixture into walls, which are left to dry naturally. Cob buildings are known for their durability and thermal properties.
4. Pise Construction: Pise de terre, or pisé, is a technique similar to rammed earth construction but involves forming walls by layering moistened earth within temporary wooden frames. Once compacted, the walls are left to dry, creating sturdy and well-insulated structures.
5. Stone Masonry: Stone masonry is a traditional building technique widely used across North Africa, particularly in regions with abundant natural stone resources. Builders use locally sourced stone, carefully fitting and stacking them to create solid walls and structures.
6. Thatched Roofing: Thatched roofs, typically made from dried palm leaves or grasses, are a common feature of vernacular architecture in North Africa. Thatching provides natural insulation and ventilation while offering protection from the sun and rain.
7. Vaulted and Domed Architecture: North African architecture often incorporates vaulted and domed structures, utilizing techniques such as brick or stone masonry to create intricate arches, domes, and vaults. These architectural features not only enhance aesthetic appeal but also provide structural stability and climate control.
8. Courtyard Design: Many traditional North African buildings feature central courtyards, surrounded by rooms or living spaces. This design maximizes natural light and ventilation while providing privacy and protection from the elements.
9. Mud Plastering: Mud plastering involves coating walls with a mixture of mud, clay, and straw to provide additional insulation, weatherproofing, and aesthetic finish. This technique is commonly used to enhance the durability and appearance of adobe or rammed earth structures.
10. Windcatchers: In some North African regions, windcatchers, also known as Malqaf or Barjeel, are incorporated into buildings to capture and direct airflow for natural ventilation and cooling. These architectural elements harness prevailing winds to improve indoor comfort, particularly during hot summer months.

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The best marathon in the world? Ones where women are allowed to run? This is a hard question to answer and you will get answers as varied as the people you ask. There are the well known marathons, like the New York Marathon in November, the London Marathon in April and the Berlin Marathon in September. Chicago, Boston, Stockholm and Paris follow suit.

What about the best marathons in the Middle East? Now you are in for an adventure. 

Adventurous, sustainable travel that’s good for you, and a marathon rolled into one? That’s a marathon in the Middle East. A marathon to support women runners? Maybe you have an eye on the prize or want to run around holy sites, the land of the cedars, or through grueling but expansive deserts in the Sahara Desert?

Maybe you are a global nomad who’s looking for the next location for roaming and running for the next few months. Nothing like training in situ like a local. Nothing like running for cardio health. And nothing like the Mediterranean Diet for heart health. We are Green Prophet so we’ve got your Middle East marathon bases covered. For this purpose locations in North Africa, the Arab parts of it, are lumped into what we call The Middle East. 

From starts in capital cities to desolate deserts or a run to help save refugees, here is a list of the best runs, the month they run, with varying degrees of atmosphere, speed, beauty and even prize money. Want us to consider adding another to this list? Drop us a line to run@greenprophet.com or a message via Instagram. 

The 10 best marathons in the Middle East

Marathon des Sables, Ouarzazate, Morocco – April

The Marathon des Sables is iconic and profits go to charity. It’s the marathon that might change your life or your status as an athlete. This marathon is more adventure and eco-tourism than any marathon you’ve ever met. “Sables” means sand in French, a second language of Morocco – after Arabic – and it’s in sand you will run. Sand will fill every crack of your soul.

It’s considered the world’s toughest footrace which combines 5 and a half marathons in one, spanning about 200 miles (251km) over five to six days. Everything you will need to eat is carried on your back, except water, as you run through the tops of the Sahara Desert in Morocco, in the heat of the sun, making it a coveted event for top athletes. Proceeds to this event go to a charity that help support desert dwellers. Funds go to solar energy systems and schools. 

Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, Dubai, UAE – February

The Dubai Marathon is the largest mass sporting event in the Middle East, according to event organizers. It’s an annual road-based marathon hosted by Dubai, United Arab Emirates, since 1998. The marathon is categorized as a Gold Label Road Race by World Athletics. In 2007, it was announced that the 2008 marathon would become the world’s richest long distance running event in history, with one million dollars offered as a prize for a world record and $250,000 for first place for both men and women. 

Top cash prizes still attract the world’s best runners. Participants from the past claimed that while the architecture is beautiful, and the weather is great for Europeans looking for a bit more heat in the winter, most of the race takes place through flat and boring scenery. 

But if you’ve come for the prize month or the ecological attractions before and after, and you are in the trance of running, who cares?

Bahrain International Marathon, Bahrain- February

The Bahrain Marathon is older than you’d think. It was This race was inaugurated in 1979 to coincide with a visit from Queen Elizabeth II, where 15 participants ran. In 1983 Mustafa Fulad became the first Bahraini to complete a full marathon but more and more locals participate in it every year as sports, and the joy of running, catches on in the Middle East.

Today this marathon is known for crossing both desert and mountains on Amwaj Island in Bahrain. Definitely not boring. As per Middle East style, the purse money is about $100,000 every year for top winners in male and female categories.

ADNOC Abu Dhabi Marathon, Abu Dhabi, UAE – December

Enjoy running with marathon elites in the heart of Abu Dhabi, while taking in iconic landmarks, stunning scenery and cheering crowds as you stride in style to finish line success. Run past the Zayed Sports Center, and Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. People come for the biggest prize money at this race, totalling about $300,000 USD dollars every year.

Sahara Marathon, Algeria – February

This intense course, a humanitarian and activist race at its core, starts in the Sahara, and you have to fly in to reach it at Al Ayoun, Algeria. Aid stations are set up throughout as you run in the world’s largest desert.  This marathon event has brought together thousands of runners for a few decades to the Saharawi refugee camps of Tindouf in Algeria. 

The Sahara Marathon is an international sport event to demonstrate solidarity with the Saharawi people with the aim of promoting sport among Saharawi young men and women and financing and developing humanitarian programs to help these people overcome conflict in the region.

Who are the Saharawi people?

The Sahrawi, or Saharawi people, are an ethnic group and nation native to the western part of the Sahara desert, which includes the Western Sahara, southern Morocco, much of Mauritania, and along the southwestern border of Algeria. They are of mixed Berber, Arab and Black African descent. Systematic human rights abuses, police brutality, violations of international law and fundamental rights, the Sahrawi people of Africa’s last colony, Western Sahara, have endured decades of repression at the hands of Moroccan occupying forces. Since replacing Spain as coloniser, Morocco has attempted to control a territory about the size of the UK, using military force to suppress free speech and pro-independence protests. 

Jerusalem Marathon, Jerusalem, Israel – March

Going for a Holy Run? The Jerusalem Marathon is an annual marathon running event held in Jerusalem during the month of March when the weather is pleasant and warm in this Israeli city, also known as The City of David. 

The course begins at Israel’s parliament, passes through Mount Scopus and the Old City, and finishes at Sacher Park. Prize money for winners is only a few thousand dollars, so this is a run you do for your soul. 

Jerusalem’s big brother marathon is the Tel Aviv Marathon, which happens in February attracts more runners and prizes (about $7,000 USD for winners, $40,000 for record breakers) and this year about 40,000 runners made it to the event. Our advice? Stay for a month and come for both marathons.

Update 2024: It’s not announced if the Jerusalem Marathon will go ahead this year but the Tel Aviv Marathon will be in March. 

Antalya Marathon, Anatolia, Turkey – March

The Antalya Marathon, officially International Öger Antalya Marathon, and for a short time known as Runtalya, is an international athletic event that takes place in Antalya, Turkey since 2006. It is one of the best marathons of the Middle East. Run along the sea, a most refreshing course that winds along one of the prettiest parts of the Mediterranean Sea. After the flat course race, rip off your shoes and head to the beach. A most sporting holiday with up to 10,000 others.

Antalya is a Turkish resort city with a yacht-filled Old Harbor and beaches with plenty of boutique hotels. It’s a gateway to Turkey’s southern Mediterranean region, known as the Turquoise Coast for its blue waters. And it’s a great destination for stargazing or launching a yacht to cruise along the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

Remnants remain from Antalya’s time in the past as a major Roman port. These include Hadrian’s Gate, built to honor the Roman emperor’s visit in 130 A.D and 2nd-century Hidirlik Tower, with stunning views of the harbor.

The Dead Sea Ultra Marathon, Ein Bokek, Israel – February

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and one of the world’s wonders. Also known for Spencer Tunick’s naked Dead Sea. Cleopatra’s beauty secret too. The highlight of the race, then, is a run towards the sea on the border embankment of the Dead Sea Works that surrounds the southern part of the Dead Sea. It happens only once a year, in marathon and ultra marathon distances, and just for this race, that security forces allow this scenic route to be open along the dikes, giving runners breathtaking views that have so far been observed by employees of the Dead Sea factories. The Dead Sea is dying. Run this race to draw awareness to the devastation caused to it from water overuse and the Dead Sea factories on other side of the sea.

The dike serves as the border area between the Israeli side of the Dead Sea and the Jordanian Dead Sea and they serve as a barrier without a fence between the two countries that maintain a peaceful relationship. So straddle both sides on this once of a lifetime run. 

“Amazing location,” says one runner who ran the Dead Sea, “I think you’d struggle to find a cooler place to run! Not crowded, fantastic photos and drone photos included, plentiful aid stations. But the main plus is definitely the awe inspiring location.”

BDL Beirut International Marathon, Beirut, Lebanon – November

Hosted in Lebanon’s capital city, the Beirut Marathon offers both wheelchair and running races, hoping to inspire health and fitness in the Land of God’s Cedars. 

Beirut is considered the cool kid on the block in the Middle East. It’s a modern city, with modern free thinkers, like the kids nearby in Tel Aviv. Although the two can never meet as conflict with Hezbollah terror groups keeps the borders closed. 

Beirut has suffered some terrible setbacks from corruption, explosions and terrorism.  Running around this Mediterranean Sea city is a powerful way to bring life back to Beirut after devastating losses in the past couple of years. After the run there are plenty of hikes and eco-tourism options to follow around Lebanon. 

Istanbul Eurasia Marathon, Istanbul, Turkey – November

Crossing from Asia into Europe, this full marathon The Istanbul Eurasia Marathon race spans two continents and you cross a bridge to connect them. The Istanbul Marathon starts 300m behind the Bosphorus Bridge; the race course divides in Besiktas turnoff after passing the bridge, then goes down from Barbaros Boulevard to Besiktas, and follows the coastal road to reach Karakoy.

Founded in 1979 in an effort to host a marathon for visiting German tourists, it is one of the oldest races in the region and certainly a foundation for one of the best marathons in the Middle East. And no doubt, visiting Istanbul is an experience you will never forget. The prize money is pretty good, about $50,000 USD every year for the winners.

Lesser known marathons in the Middle East

Already tried these 10 best marathons of the Middle East? Don’t forget there are some other new and noteworthy marathons in the Middle East region: Cairo hosts a stunning race but you need to run 4 times in a loop, the Erbil marathon for peace in Iraqi-held Kurdistan in November.

Amman, Jordan hosts a marathon every year but I don’t love the city. It’s polluted and not walkable. If you want to visit Jordan, try the Petra Marathon in the south and which runs around antiquities; or the Dead Sea Marathon you access from the Israeli side, via Jerusalem. The run starts in Israel and then head over to Aqaba and Petra for tourism before going to Bir Sweir in Sinai, Egypt for a week. 

If you are near Jordan, you can also try the Riyadh Road Runners, a marathon in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia meant for social and professional runners. Women are allowed to run in regular running gear but adapted hijabs make it possible to run covered. There will be a women’s only group running starting in 2022. So join the race and when you run, run in solidarity with the women too. And remember, at ultra-long distances women can outrun men.

Want us to consider adding another to this list of the Best Marathons in the Middle East? Have a sporting event for us to cover, an event which makes sustainable travel even better? Drop us a line  run@greenprophet.com or a message us via Instagram. 

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One of their portable solar pack products can be thrown over your back and taken on a long trail to nowhere; another can serve your household as a silent backup generator.

iLand was recently commissioned to power up a massive 6-day desert marathon, the Marathon des Sables, for over 1100 runners plus 400 staff, reporters and spectators in Morocco’s Sahara Desert; they’ve seen sales increase in Japan post-tsunami as an alternate solar generator for locals; iLand gives solutions to NATO, the Red Cross, and soon the French Army; and for lone wolves everywhere who want to run, walk or be on the lone trail without leaving greenhouse gas behind.

Plus, their portable packs are sexy.

Looking for Middle East business buyers, distributors and sales teams, iLAND’s CEO Daniele Oppizzi talks with Green Prophet briefly about this cool new technology powered by the hottest thing we all know: the Sun.

“I am an architect and biologist,” says Oppizzi (pictured above) “and I worked in various development projects where I had the chance to be involved in rural development projects.

“Following a trip to Morocco, I understand that was the moment to make autonomous mobile solutions. Thanks to the help of my father who is an electrician we developed the first Iland system.”

Now available for sale or lease (like a big trailer-sized box that could power up music festivals with sun-filled batteries), iLAND showed its potential in Morocco recently where they provided power to base camp every day so desert runners could communicate with loved ones.

“Doing this at base camp and 30 kilowatt hours per day isn’t trivial,” he tells me. “The sun and the heat there is a challenge but when the director of the marathon contacted me about the idea, I guaranteed that our military-certified solutions could live up to our promise and we did this in poor conditions using trucks in the desert on a very rough road.”

Made to be 100 percent water-proof, but also heat- and shock-resistant, today 80 percent of the company’s sales are in retail, and they are going deeper into the mass market with the Fly and Trek packs, two smaller products that look like an architect’s renderings box and carried over the arm on or with provisions.

For the home market there is the Tube and Bigbox – both can serve as generators or sole sources of power for off-grid living on the move.

“The only other solution in the past was diesel generators running every day and night,” says Oppizzi. “Besides the greenhouse gas pollution, imagine the noise these generators make in the desert or in remote locations?” Oppizzi asks me.

Actually the first time I had set to talk with him from Northern Ontario over to Neuchatel, Switzerland, bad weather dropped my power and I had to call in on a landline with a raging, noisy and smoking generator outside my door. iLAND’s solar panel, home solution rather, powers up a backup battery using the sun. I wish I had one.

Their biggest solution can cost thousands of dollars, but for small one-day treks the Fly costs about $100 USD for your GPS, phone or radio. For bigger power needs the Trek can work to feed the needs of laptops, phones and small devices in a tent offering three days of autonomy without the sun. This would appeal to Middle East trekking guides and costs about $600 and it weighs about 2 kilograms.

Bigger solutions like the Tube are portable but which need to be hitched to a ride to move can power bigger devices like a TV or fridge. At 12 kilograms the cost is about $1600 USD.

“We now have a lot of customers in Japan as it is now mandated for emergencies by the government that every home have a backup power source for future problems,” Oppizzi tells us. Some are turning to iLAND.

This year marks four years of development after starting up in 2010 and the first product, the Tube.

In parallel the company is producing off-grid accessories for environmentalists and survivalists: like water purification systems that use the sun, or lamps and special adaptors that hook into the power packs.

Now iLAND is casting its net over the Middle East as it looks for distributors in countries like Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. We hope that we can help them find a match for their novel source of sun power.

Meanwhile, you can buy their products at retail prices through the iLAND website here.

The post iLAND’s Solar Packs for Peace-keepers, Festivals, Eco-jocks and Alpha Wolves Who Travel with the Sun appeared first on Green Prophet.

Since Algeria possesses very little in the way of aggregate materials that can be used in the construction industry, researchers from the University of Kasdi Merbah and the Polytechnic School of Algiers developed a new kind of brick made with little more than water, sand sourced from their own backyard – so to speak – and a binder.

While not as high tech as Markus Kayser’s solar-powered 3D printer which uses the sun’s power to turn desert sand into three dimensional objects, the Algerian researchers tested their sand bricks 750 times in order to deliver a strong, well-insulated material with superior mechanical resistance that is still affordable.

“If the compression and the thermal resistance of [the bricks] are validated by Algerian building material codes, it could solve the building material crises which Algerian builders are suffering from,” Ali Zaidi, a researcher in the Department of Civil Engineering of Algeria’s University of Laghouat, told SciDev.Net.

The country’s southern region is best suited to accommodate an industry of this nature, according to the researchers, who add that the bricks are resistant to fierce wind storms, scorcher days, and frigid nights.

We have long extolled the benefits of earth architecture, but primitive mud buildings no longer appeal to the majority of contemporary home owners.

Perhaps the  bricks of sand dune (BRSD)-based concrete will persuade the region to give earth another chance?

Stock image of red brick, Shutterstock

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Held just one day ahead of one of the most important utility scale solar conferences in the Middle East and North Africa region, MENASOL 2013, this fantastic event explores the role of women in this explosive industry. Hosted for the second time by Nikita Shree, the seminar will be held on May 13th at the Regency Hyatt Dubai Hotel. Because women know the sun’s power too, the Women Solar Seminar offers a ladies-only opportunity to network, share experiences and create an empowering environment for female professionals working in the solar industry.

A host of inspiring women will be giving presentations, including Mona Ghalayani, Chairman and Founder of Arab Society of Environment and Sustainability and Jo Rowbotham from Enrst & Young, Michelle Davies from Eversheds.

‘I am very proud to be able to host the Women’s Solar Seminar for the second year. We have received great support and encourage from both men and women that would like to empower women in the industry,” Shree said in a recent statement.

“The event will provide a great networking and learning opportunity for senior level executives and aspiring professionals in the energy industry across the Middle East and North Africa. We have made it accessible to everyone with a nominal charge so everyone can join in lively debates, share ideas and benefit from a wealth of knowledge and experience in one room.”

It is often said that women have to work harder than men to achieve the same goals. If this is true, then it’s important to band together in order to bridge the gap. However, it is also important for women and men to work together – something that is becoming increasingly possible, particularly in the Gulf.

Last year we interviewed Masdar’s Director of Sustainability – Nawah Al Hosany, who happens to be a woman. She reminded us that capturing energy from the sun is good business, but there is an important moral imperative behind the industry as well.

“Women have a social, economic and moral responsibility to be equal participants in the fight against climate change. And one way we can immediately help is to encourage women to pursue careers in math and science, where we can advance the renewable, clean-tech and sustainability sectors,” she explained.

Don’t just go to the seminar for the food, which is usually full of toxic sugar anyway. Support the ladies of solar; be a part of the change!

For more information on the event email Nikita Shree at Nikita(at)csptoday(dot)com

Image of women in the Sahara, Shutterstock

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From 11,000 to 5,000 years ago, the 3.5 million square miles of sand and dunes had pockets of water, where hippos cheerfully went about their business. But then, quite drastically, the climate changed, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Columbia University scientists want to know why.

The research team used groundbreaking techniques to glean the rate at which dust settled in the area we now think of as the Sahara desert during the greener era known as the African Humid Period.

Using data collected by Columbia University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the team studied how quickly sand from the nearby region settled into an area on the northwest coast of Africa, where they took samples of deposits that settled as far back as 30,000 years ago.

First they employed thorium-230 normalization, a method that measures the presence of decayed uranium also known as thorium 230, in a specific sediment sample.

RD Mag describes the method thusly:

Over time, uranium decays to thorium-230, an insoluble chemical that sticks to any falling sediment as it sinks to the seafloor. The amount of uranium—and by extension, the production rate of thorium-230—in the world’s oceans is relatively constant. McGee [David McGee, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences] measured the concentration of thorium-230 in each core sample to determine the accumulation rates of sediments through time.

Higher concentrations of thorium-230 indicate slow sedimentation rates.

Next it was necessary to determine how much of the deposits was carried by the wind – because eventually this will help to determine to what extent dust impacts/drives/changes/slows down climate change – knowledge that could inform us in the rapidly changing Holocene era.

Again, from RD Mag via MIT:

The researchers subtracted biological sediment from the samples by measuring calcium carbonate, opal and organic carbon, the primary remnants of living organisms. After subtracting this measurement from each sample layer, the researchers tackled the task of separating the remaining sediment into windblown dust and marine sediments—particles that circulate through the ocean, deposited on the seafloor by currents. McGee employed a second technique called grain-size endmember modeling, charting a distribution of grain sizes ranging from coarse grains of dust to fine grains of marine soil.

“We define these endmembers: A pure dust signal would look like this, and a pure marine sediment would look like this,” McGee says. “And then we see, OK, what combination of those extremes would give us this mixture that we see here?”

Based on this, they discovered that the Sahara today is five times dustier than it was 6,000 years ago. But the team needs to go further to understand the genesis of Sahara’s wetter days.

Image of camels and people in the Sahara desert, Shutterstock

The post A Greener Sahara for Elephants and Hippos – 5,000 Years Ago appeared first on Green Prophet.

In the summer, according to the locals, these are the only houses anyone can stand to live in since they are protected against the relentless sun. And in  winter, when temperatures in the desert drop down to nothing, the clay and straw walls absorb and hold daytime heat. In the last few decades, the oasis town became completely reliant on a steady stream of tourists, and now that the revolution is over, at least one man wants them back. 

We recently met a Libyan businessman in Madrid who specializes in purchasing and selling construction materials. When we talked to him about Green Prophet, he insisted that we visit Ghadamès.

So we did – at least in cyber space.

Each house in the ancient settlement, which sits in Libya’s dusty southwestern corner, has multiple levels. The first is used for storage, the second for day-to-day living and the third typically spills out into a warren of narrow, covered walkways aerated with small perforations.

The flat rooftops form an entirely new level that is reserved strictly for women, who use them to travel from home to home.

But the town of 10,000 inhabitants is in danger of passing into obscurity.

Gaddafi introduced new houses to the periphery, though they depend on air-conditioning to stay cool, along with new roads, and essentially left the old city to fend for itself.

“In 1990,” according to Temehu, one of the most organized tourism groups in the country, “a feasibility study was presented to UNDP by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), to the effect that if conservation work did not start in the next few years, Ghadames, a world heritage site, would become an archaeological site.”

Once it opened up to tourists, survival seemed imminent since money was pumped into the local economy (although this also created an unhealthy dependence on tourism for survival.) But then the Arab Spring swept through the region, bringing with it a host of unanticipated consequences.

Last September and again in May this year, Gaddafi loyalists attacked the earthen compound, raising alarm among those organizations who have fought to hard to protect it.

“I am deeply concerned by information that the Libyan city of Ghadamès has been the target of rocket attacks,” UNESCO’s Director-General Irinia Bokova said in May. “I call upon all those involved to refrain from hostile acts that could cause additional damage to this outstanding city, inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The bombing may have stopped, but foreigners still have no incentive to wander back to the medina.

Tourism traffic to one of Libya’s most valuable architectural gems, according to a recent Guardian story, clocked in at about  25,000 annual visitors before the Libyan revolution. It has since trickled to a standstill.

And after the last wave of violence that ended in the deaths of American Ambassador Chris Stevens and five others, nobody is likely to book a fast flight to Libya any time soon.

Images via Wikipedia

The post Libya’s Oldest Mud City is Critically Endangered appeared first on Green Prophet.

Once they are are online, part of the energy these plants generate will be evacuated to Europe via subsea cables on the Mediterranean sea floor. Each country has made commitments that make sense to them, but Algeria’s ambitions are perhaps the boldest of all.

Algeria hopes to produce 650 MW by 2015 and – get this – 22,000MW within another 15 years.

At the end of last year, the national utility company Sonelgaz reached an agreement with the Desertec Foundation to supply a chunk of that energy to Europe. But in order to come clean with that arrangement, Algeria needs to start building.

Luckily there is no shortage of solar potential in the North African country, according to ieee:

Sonelgaz estimates that in the part of the country covered by the Sahara—86 percent of the total area—there are about 3500 hours of sunshine each year. This yields an insolation rate of 2650 kilowatt-hours per square meter per year, similar to or even better than the best areas in the California deserts that dominate U.S. solar installation sites.

In 2010, Algeria produced about 2.078 million barrels of oil each day, but ieee expects that amount to drop off, which would partially explain the country’s eagerness to vamp up their energy portfolio.

Although the country (and region overall) are deeply unstable politically, the engineering arm of the national utility company CEEG began to solicit tender bids for both solar and wind energy projects.

Jordan is doing the same after a series of natural gas pipeline explosions have disrupted supplies from Egypt. It’s a hopeful trend, and one that can be sustained as technology progresses.

:: ieee

Image credit: Sahara Desert in Algeria, Shutterstock

More on Desertec and Solar Power:

4 Desertec Deals That Make our Energy Future More Secure

World Bank to Fund Massive Grid Expansion to Link Desertec / Arab World

MENA is Fired Up For a Solar Boom

The post Algeria Solicits Bids for Wind and Solar Plants appeared first on Green Prophet.

As an avid “world music” listener – although I don’t like this term but I still haven’t found a better one- it is always an immense pleasure to discover hidden musical gems. One organization that feeds you with just these jewels is radio Groovalizacion.  Greenprophet interviews founder Toni Polo to find out why and how radio Groovalization and its music is a successful medium through which people from the Middle East and North Africa can express, communicate and continue traditions.

Convinced that art and culture can raise social awareness, Ton Polo has been coordinating various intercultural schemes since 2006, either as a film director, radio journalist, DJ or cultural manager of his project “Migratory Music ”. He has been involved in various activities in relation with music, immigration, identities and integration collaborating with several NGOs and associations in Argentina, Spain, Senegal, Morocco, Turkey, Portugal and Mali.

Emigration from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to Europe has been an important political and economic topic in the past ten to fifteen years- in 2010 the stock of documented migrants was 18.1 million or 5.3% of the MENA region population. However little is discussed on the cultural, traditional and artistic impact migration is having on the country of origin and departure.

In terms of music, what does emigration mean for the MENA region, particularly the Maghreb countries such as Morocco, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia – where many young people are leaving their homeland and perhaps foregoing their own traditional lifestyles, practices and rituals for more “westernized” ones?  

Music is always an interesting way to analyze what is going on in terms of politics, demography or economics. Nowadays with the Internet; migration, exchange and the influence across the Mediterranean are stronger than ever. The way young people in these countries consume have changed rapidly in the last 30 years and consequently so have the artistic and cultural tendencies.  In these transformative processes there is always an initial period of imitation, in which artists tend to copy what is seen or heard from the TV, radio, press and internet. However, interestingly, there is a second period where artists and musicians try to recuperate and rediscover their own roots.

I believe in the last ten years, there has been a new generation of artists in many of the MENA countries who are more conscious of their origins and try to build on their local musical roots by blending in global influences such as Hip-Hop, Jazz, Reggae, Funk. Typically these are the artist who migrated or lived abroad, while those that have not migrated tend to copy western musıc because they appreciate their own wealth less.

At the same time, the concept of emigration in the MENA has been changing in the past 5 years. In 2007, when I was shooting a documentary “The colors of Tea” about young musicians in Morocco such as Darga, Zazz Band, Style Souss, Amarg Fusion or Ganga Vibes, many of the musicians we met told to us they didn’t want to leave theır country, instead they want to fight against the problems that exist in their own country such as corruption, Woman’s Rights and democracy. I think this feeling of pride and responsibility has increased with the crisis as we can see from the “Arab Spring”, this also means that many of the themes of the songs are also changing.

How does radio groovalizacion “give a voice” to different cultures and social issues across the MENA region specifically?

I founded Groovalizacion with a French friend who has origins from Morocco, since the beginning we gave special attention to artists in this region because we wanted to provide Europeans with a contemporary vision of the  MENA while demystifying stereotypes. Since then we broadcast regularly albums and artist from this region such as Dhafer Youssef from Tunisia, Darga from Morocco, Aziza Brahim from Sahraoui (Western Sahara)  or Ibrahim Maalouf from Lebanon.

Aziza Brahim has transformed some poems of Ljarda Mint Mabroc, a poet known amongst the Sahraouis, into music. They all evoke the struggle for independence of the Sahraoui people, the difficulty of living in exile and the heroic deaths at the Polisario Front.

Personally, I have made some research on the MENA region as part of my project “Migratory Music”, with “The colors of tea” and another project in 2010 and 2011 called “Bosphoroads” about the blend between tradition and modernity in contemporary Turkish music. But also in one of my latest projects about music from Valencia called “Mediterraquis” . I like to speak about the connections between music from several parts of the Mediterranean sea to show that in all these regıons from Spain to Syria, or from Greece to Algeria,  are more connected than we  think in cultural terms.

With this in mind, one of the main ideas of Groovalzaicon is to create a global platform which focuses on music in terms of content but also in terms of the creators, the people. This way we are not only “giving a voice” to social and political issues but also we are “giving a voice” to specific people and populations.  We are now trying to expand to include journalist, musicians, visual artists or filmmakers from these countries in order to include a wider variety of creativity from this area.

In your experience, are the themes that migrant musicians cover in their songs different from those that non-migrants cover in the same region?  

For me is hard to speak about the lyrics and the themes of this music because many times the songs are in Arabic or other local languages. But I think that in general, between the artists who live abroad it’s more common to find lyrics about the local government or the political situation because in many MENA countries there is still a strong censorship. Even in a country that we consider democratic such as Turkey, I remember an interview with the band Babazula where they spoke about the strong censorship suffered by Turkish musicians nowadays. I think the voice and the work of these migrant artists have been pivotal in changing the mentality of the local people, who start to become more conscientious about the responsibilities of their own governments.

In recent years, how much “voice” are marginalized or “minority” groups such as the Tuareg, Berbers, Bedouins and Druze gaining through music? Is radio groovalizacion providing a platform for them?

For Groovalizacion it is very important to give a voice to minorities all over the world because we really believe that the power and the health of a society depend of the diversity and tolerance it has. Personally I have developed several projects trying to reinforce the cultural diversity in some of these countries. For example, in Mali I started a radio-show called “Mundo Mali” in partnership with a communitarian radio called Radio Kayira , and a video-series called Bamakosmos. In both I interview many of the ethnic groups that are present in Mali, some of them with deep problems of integration and tolerance, like the Tuaregs. And as we are seeing now with the current situation in Northern Mali, tolerance, integration and respect has to be supported by the politicians because if not fights, radicalism and conflict could appear everywhere, in Mali, Syria or France. Music plays an important role in diffusing messages of tolerance and unity. Radio Groovalizacion has provided a platform of podcasts, articles, live events and more for  many “minority” artists especially from  Western Sahara.

If you had to describe radio groovalizacion with 1 adjective, 1 verb, 1 noun and 1 goal what would they be?

Nomad, travel, journey, share sounds to connect people.

:: Radio Groovalizacion

The post Radio Groovalizacion Communicates Middle East Migration Through Music appeared first on Green Prophet.

Every year thousands of Europeans head to Morocco for a cheap trip; hopefully more will travel the eco-friendly way.

British tour operator Specialist Morocco recently announced that they are opening up their ecologically-friendly tented camp in Morocco’s Southern Draa Valley for another season. And though we are particularly sensitive to greenwashing after witnessing first hand the high price the North African country pays when hordes of mostly European visitors looking for a cheap trip skip across the Mediterranean for a short jaunt, this 4-star camp seems to genuinely prioritize both the local community and the natural environment on which they rely.

To get to the camp, visitors will drive about seven hours south of Marrakech, a journey that passes through some of Morocco’s most compelling and winding vistas.

The camp’s eight unique Caidal sleeping tents come in three different sizes – twin, double, and family, and there is an additional salon tent where guests meals are served.

Traditional dishes are prepared by Berber chefs using ingredients that are sourced locally from the verdant valley and usually include tangine (meat or vegetarian) along with cous cous and various Moroccan salads. Moroccan pancakes and freshly baked bread are served in the mornings.

Both batteries and lanterns are solar-powered and traditional candle lanterns also give the experience a touch more authenticity than propane-powered lights.

Each tent has an en-suite bush shower and “bio-loos” that don’t leach into the surrounding water ways. Especially conscientious travelers using hygiene products that don’t contain harmful phosphates will go even further to reducing their environmental impact while staying with Specialist Morocco, which also leads a variety of guided tours into the desert – by camel, 4×4, or on foot.

:: Easier Travel

More on Eco-Tourism in Morocco:

Riad Dar One for Some Magical Marrakech Mystery

Dare Eat Nuts Broken by a Goat’s Butt?

Chasing Berbers in the Atlas Mountains

The post Morocco’s Tourism Season Kicks off With Luxury Eco-Camping appeared first on Green Prophet.