The Gurfa Cave complex is a network of man-made, interconnected rooms dug out of a red sandstone spur, south east of the residential area of Alia (PA). Gurfa, a word of Arabic origin, literally means “room”.
The caves are divided into six rooms on two floors with openings in the ceilings that allow sunlight to filter in. Two openings on the ground level provide access to two rooms linked by a corridor. The larger, a round, bell-shaped room (tholos), has a staircase cut out of the rock which is all that is left of a ramp that led to four upper rooms, today accessed by a metal external ladder.
The origins of the complex are uncertain: the rooms were actually in continual use until several decades ago (local farmers used them to store grain) and, almost certainly, new elements were added over the course of the centuries (small niches dug out of the rock, rings to tie up animals etc.).
Sicilia Film Commission
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