Zinchecra (منطقة الغريفة Al-ghrifa)

 ruins, cemetery, ancient, fortification, interesting place

Ancient capital of the Garamantes

Excavations at Zinchecra, a hill fort settlement of the Garamantes in Fezzan, southern Libya, have recovered a rich assemblage of desiccated and carbonised plant remains. Before Garama was founded the tribe inhabited the promontory fortress of Zinchecra c. 2½ miles to the south-west, where excavation has revealed three main periods of occupation. The earliest consists of rock-scooped hearths, the second of rough dry-stone and frond shelters with stone-lined hearths. The third is more complex with buildings ranging from rough shelters to well-built mud-brick ‘houses’, the latest of which date to the first century B.C. and employed dressed stone in their basal courses. At the start of this period a complex of enclosure banks and walls was thrown around the base of the spur. Finally the site was abandoned to cemeteries.