Ghadames, known as ‘the pearl of the desert‘, stands in an oasis. 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.