This dissertation presents a study of the urban form of the Old Town of Ghat, the historical sultanate of the Azjer Tuareg. An analysis of the public and private spaces of this collective artifact is presented in order to comprehend and document the relationship between this Saharan town's architecture and Ghatian society. This study illustrates how Ghat's vernacular architecture represents a range of culturally distinct meanings and values and how this architecture reflects Ghatian life. In order to analyze the built environment of Ghat and the pattern of use of public and private spaces, this dissertation investigates Azjer Tuareg culture and documents the various existing nomadic and semi-nomadic Azjer Tuareg housing typologies in Libya. It investigates not only the contribution of the socio-cultural practices of this culture to the way spaces were configured, organized, and used, but also the Ghatian peoples' daily and seasonal life routines as well as their various social and economic activities. / This dissertation explores Ghat's spaces at three levels of its urban environment: the home (domestic), the neighbourhood (communal), and the town (public). It focuses on the relationship between the social aspects of Ghatian culture and the formation and use of the town's spaces. It also investigates the affect of trans-Saharan trade and the colonization and ruling history of Old Ghat on its formation and/or growth and the creation of public and private spatial domains in an attempt to understand the embedded meanings of Ghat's built environment. This study also investigates the role of climate in the formation of Old Ghat and the ingenious architecture and structure of its dwellings. This architecture reflects local construction techniques and limited local resources, consequently imparting distinct meaning to the built form of Ghat.

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