Ghadames,an oasis town in northwestern Libya is the Berber Pearl of the Sahara, located at the edge of the Sahara Desert, close to the Libyan-Algerian border. Ghadames is famed for its Old Town, a walled settlement constructed of narrow tunnels where the light and dark play tricks on the eyes. Ghadames has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.Once under Roman rule, Ghadames was under the control of the Ottoman Empire circa the sixteenth century.The town's former inhabitants, predominantly Amazigh Berbers, were forced to memorise and distinguish real routes from dead ends in order to navigate their way through the labyrinthine town.The name Ghadames has nothing to do with the promulgated etymology of “ghadana ames†as it was mentioned by the Romans Tidamensi is the name of an ancient Berber tribe belonging to classical Phazania (or modern Fezzan).