Gharyan is one of the best places in Libya to see troglodyte dwellings — houses dug vertically into the soft limestone hillside, with rooms cut around a central underground courtyard open to the sky. The design was both practical and elegant: the earth acts as insulation, keeping the interior around 18°C even when the surface temperature tops 40°C in summer.
A handful of these homes have been preserved as informal museums, where owners will let you descend into the cool darkness for a small fee. The rooms are low and whitewashed, with carved niches for lamps and storage jars. Several are still used for storage or seasonal habitation. The contrast between the mundane street-level entrance and the extraordinary excavated world below is one of the more memorable things you'll find anywhere in the Nafusa Mountains.