The Gasr al-Hajj castle is undoubtedly one of the most wonderful pieces of Berber architecture in Libya. It is a huge, fortified circular-shaped granary built in the 7th century AH/ 13th century AD by Abdallah Abu Jatla.
Located on the Tripoli-’Aziziya-Al Jawf route about 130 km from Tripoli, it was built to serve as a storage facility for families from the surrounding area in return for a quarter of their crops which the owner presumably used as a waqf for teaching Qur’an and Islamic related subjects to the people of the area. Surrounding the courtyard are 114 cave-like storage rooms, arranged on several levels. The lowest level, which partially lies underground, is used to store olive oil, while the upper levels are mainly used for barley and wheat. Each family in the village would have a specially designated place. The whole structure is usually circular and has a main entrance gate. It is these castles that bring to mind the statement mentioned by some historians that the Libyans were the first to invent the banking system, and therefore you are looking at one of the oldest banks in the world. In a way, each one of these rooms has evolved to become a vault in modern banks where wealthy families can deposit their precious valuables for safekeeping.
