Tozeur bricks

[expedition_retirement]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Tozeur is a city of bricks. The exteriors of the buildings here have historically been decorated with elaborate brick designs. In order to preserve that heritage, the city now requires this brick work on a minimum percentage of the exterior of all structures in the town. This creates a significant demand for bricks, which we learned are all made locally, by hand.

After visiting the date farm in the oasis, we drove to the other side of time to the brick works. This area hosts a large number of workshops and kilns, where some 60 families work to make all of the bricks used around the town. We visited one workshop, where the brickmaker showed us how he used molds to form bricks from the clay. The bricks were then air dried before being fired in a nearby kiln. He also showed how he trimmed the bricks as they dried, making sure that the finished bricks are flawless. Any defective bricks are recycled back into the clay slurry before firing, and used to make additional bricks.

Unfortunately, the number of workers doing this labor intensive work is dwindling, with fewer young men taking up the craft. This trend is troubling, threatening the future of this craft, and, if it continues, could mean that the distinctive brick work of Tozeur could become dependent upon factory made bricks shipped in from elsewhere.