Borj

A corner tower or bastion. The borj is the defining external element of the southern Moroccan kasbah — typically four square towers, one at each corner of the rectangular plan, rising one or two storeys above the curtain wall and tapering slightly inward in the upper register. The towers carry decorative crenellation, blind arcading, and the characteristic geometric brick patterns of Drâa, Dadès, and Ounila Valley work. In the igherm and the Tunisian ksour the tower function is sometimes absorbed into the cell-block geometry rather than projected as an external bastion.