Fourth Dimension Tours

The Magic Portal to The Desert

The Mediterranean and the desert: sea and "counter-sea" that define the "island" of the Great Jamahiriya. And just as the contests have enhanced the power of the rich with splendid pearls, so does the desert - the "counter-sea" - preserve within its precious oasis shell, it's most rare and priceless pearl.
Ghadames! The Pearl of the Desert.
And just as the pearls imprison the languid light stolen from the of the "counter-sea" throb with the most precious and rare influence of the sun, that donates penetrating life to all things.

Ghadames! The Portal of the Desert.
Everything that becomes distorted here is, in nature, splendid; because nothing more than the desert, with its sun, its critaline and transparent air, can exalt the immensity of nature, which man can only rarely - and for fleeting moments - truly understand.
The weary travelers that come to Ghadames found solace in its shade and refreshing waters and they baptised this haven (The magic Portal of the Desert).
Because to enter Ghadames is to enter such an inconceivable reality as to seem spellbound; it's a dream world that the desert preserves and protects in its embrace, revealing its precious contents only to those who can observe with their heart.

This is found in Great Jamahiriya.

The Desert: The Sea reflected in a magic mirror.

A world where all the elements of the marine depths continue to exist, because the desert is nothing other than a limitless sea transformed by the magic of a mirror.
Thus, the seaweed that gently rises and falls, moved by marine currents, becomes the palms that sway under the caress of the warm wind; the great sunken rocks, sculptured by the force of the sea into infinite underwater passages or grottos that offer shelter to the thousand forms of sea life, have now become the walls of houses or line that paths that intersect the oasis.
Ghadames gained the name of " The magic portal to the desert" during the last century when the caravans stopped there for refreshment before affronting the desert.

The witness of the light pours onto the walls of the houses - blinding, yet reassuring.

And the sand is soft, friendly, an accomplice or raging, turbulent.
Sand that entwines, conceals and bewilders: tormented by the impetuous desert wind.
And Ghadames is a crystal of sand, set in the superbframe of an oasis, as green as the waters of its lakes.
As if to signify that between sky and water, the earth is the enchanted fusion of these two universes in a unique wonder.

Over The centuries unknown Hands Have modeled a Harmonious Masterpiece of Houses Arches and Terraces.

In the magical game of the mirror, the sea returns unwittingly in the colors of the city, which floats like a enchanted island of the sea sand.
The blue of the deepest waters and the turquoise of the waves against the sunlight define the doors - just as the red of the sun that sinks like an incandescent ball into the blue line of the horizon, envelops the walls of the houses in a magical web.
The desert, with its jewels of coral in silver: colors that bring to mind the agile fish that dart below the water's surface.
The desert, deep red at sundown, returns in the crimson of the cochineal that dyes the wool tied by the swift hands of the women at their loom.

The Enchanted Grotto

The two main ethinc groups "Bani Walid" And "Bani Wazid" live respectively in the North and South of the village.

(Once upon a time…) and the fable continue as the elders tell the story when the desert was a sea.
Ghadames becomes a city of submerged fairies and this beautiful example of an ancient abode seems an enchanted grotto beyond the Magic Portal: a museum of living memories of when the walls of the enchanted grotto in the depths of the sea were illuminated by corals of fire that glowed on the rocky surface, where limpits cling vravely to the harsh stone, changing colors in the ever muting light.
The houses vibrate with their multicolored baskets and motley array of carpets.

As if under a spell, since ancient time, the elders words animate the daughters of the desert: cheeky little girls with profound and mischievous eyes: a little naughty, a little melancholy, variegated in their dresses woven from the opulent beauty of nature: pearls and corals, gold from the sun, turquoise from the water; the wave's white foam is sewn into shiny blouses and their brightly striped cloaks are iridescent with greys muting to violet, crimson to silver: colors stolen from the sunsets that await the arrival of the silver moonbeams.

On her wedding day: the bride prepares herself in (El kubba), the room tradition says she must leave to join her husband.

Beyond the magic Portal the world is transformed.

Ghadames is a place where fable and reality merge and the ever-changing visions intertwine, but each retains traces of the world from which they came.

Ghadames: where fables come to the life.

The ritual story of the hunter and the hunted is relived in this ancient dance, where man is transformed in gazelle and recreated the eternal fight for survival.
During wedding celebrations. The songs and dances are accompanied with hours, string instruments and drums.

The enchantment overwhelms us and leads us by the hand into a "Majlis", a small square, where two Tuareg meet in a dance celebrates their pride to be the great normad warriors that are as part of the desert as their camels or the sand itself.

The Characteristic music and dances of the Tuareg tell of their eternal struggle against the nature and invaders.

Air, Water, Earth and Fire:
Besides the sweet, drinking water, there is also a lake saltier than the sea.
Lake " Mujazim" is 70 meters Deep.

The fight against the elements for survival in this magnificent but cruel world, can be read in the depths of the eyes of those who affront the desert every day with courage and dignity.

History tells us that the Arabs discovered the movement of the stars and that the Zodiac with its elliptical form and its 12 houses - one for each constellation - is the vital spirit that still today sweeps us forward in the time and infinity.
We wonder, therefore, if it is by chance that is laid out in the form of an ellipse or whether it is the eternal celebration of the stars, the moon, the sun?!
Reference points without which it would be impossible - then as now - - to cross the immense wastes of sand without losing orientation in a world that is so close to God and so far from pettiness of man.

A world whose aspect changes with the speed of raging wind that sweeps the sand into dunes and hills, where seconds before all was a flat, burning, expanse.

Nothing remains of the passing of the Romans in Ghadames but the rains of 5 large funeral monuments called " As Asnam".

The mosque of Ghadames is an oasis, where Islam welcomes the travelers on the great journey of life, offering them the water and food of meditation and knowledge.

" Familiarize yourself with a foreign city you should find a secluded spot, a place that you can trust and where you can be alone when the confusion of voices… becomes too much".

We believe that Ghadames is that secluded place in which we can trust: a place that belongs to everyone, under whatever latitude or longitude, because it is here that every man, lost traveler in this foreign city that is life, can come to rediscover the only voice that counts. The voice of silence that reunites us with God.

Ghadames was famed for its ancient mosque, but today the minarets and domes of the new mosque are the focal point of the religious and social life of