I wouldn’t describe myself as A Star Wars Fan, but I’m pretty sure I have seen all the movies. My first was The Phantom Menace at a sleepover when I was 11, and the rest were accumulated through grad school and after, since NOT knowing Star Wars is perceived as a major deficiency amongst many (most?) Americans. The newest three I even saw opening weekend at the Air and Space Museum IMAX theater! (To be clear, I’m not trying to pretend like I’m not a Big Nerd, I’m just saying that if I get anything Star Warsy wrong in this post please do not come for me.)
So when we arrived in Tunisia and began exploring what to do and where to go, Star Wars filming locations were definitely on our list. One of the “sites” is the Planet Tatooine landscape with its underground (“troglodyte”) dwellings; for you non-Star Wars fans, Tatooine is the name of Anakin and Luke Skywalker’s home planet, and also an actual city in south-central Tunisia.
We took a train and a bus and a louage (shared taxi) from Tunis to the tiny town of Matmata, the IRL location of Luke’s home. We stayed in a cave hotel and took a quick jaunt down the road to the Sidi Idriss Hotel,1 the actual filming location. It’s still a functioning hotel/bar/restaurant with some random leftover props lying around—literally wood painted gray with some knobs and piping attached—so we ordered lunch and a couple beers and settled in to soak up The Force. (Sidenote: Tunisian beer is a mistake.)
Star Wars aside, these underground Amazigh2 dwellings are very cool and tourism-worthy in their own right! They’ve been the norm in southern Tunisia since Phonecian times as they stay cool, out of the desert wind, and hide the residents from any invaders. Matmata wasn’t even known by the Tunisian government until 1969! That year major flooding destroyed so many homes that a delegation was sent to the town of Gabès (just 40 miles away) to ask for help. The people of Gabès were surprised to learn about their neighbors but sent help nonetheless, building above-ground homes that were used in the short term but ultimately mostly abandoned in favor of caves.
The next day we teamed up with three other travelers to hire a car for a day tour of ksars (fortified towns) around the area, many of which were featured in Star Wars. Again, I’m a medium Star Wars fan, but these sites are super cool regardless of cinematic association.
In case anyone out there is trying to recreate, the private car cost $35 per person, and here’s our itinerary:
Toujane (quick photo stop at a very old Amazigh village)
Ksar Hallouf (very cool row of granaries on top of a hill)
Ksar Hadada (a hotel and Phantom Menace filming location)
Chenini (amazing fortified hilltop town)
Ksar Ouled Soltane (the tallest “gorfa” aka granary and Phantom Menace filming location)
Tataouine (not much to see, but we took a photo with the sign!)
We expected it all to be a lot more touristy than it was; at most sites we just showed up, parked the van, and meandered around. The two Star Wars hotels we visited charged a ~30-cent entrance fee.
From Matmata we headed north to stay in the oasis town of Tozeur, a common access-point for all things desert in southern Tunisia. Since we pretty thoroughly did our desert things in Morocco, we focused, again, on Star Wars! There were two major highlights:
First, Star Wars’ Mos Espa (town) set was built in the desert outside Tozeur and left up at the request of the Tunisian Bureau of Tourism. Because it sits in/at the edge of a salt lake, you have to access it by 4x4. This fake town looked a lot like the real towns and granaries we’d visited around Matmata — I assume they had to build a set to make it wide enough and wired for cameras? Plus, the surrounding canyons were used for the podrace in The Phantom Menace.
Second, Tozeur sits at the edge of Chott el Djerid, the largest salt lake in the Sahara. This is the location of the Lars Homestead (the inside of which was filmed at that hotel in Matmata). We hired a private driver to take us there for sunset — we had the place completely to ourselves and it was spectacular. There’s a plaque at the site noting that recently $10,000 was raised to restore and maintain Star Wars memorabilia in the area (I can only wonder how the locals feel about this).
In conclusion, Tunisia is a very nice country to visit, and Star Wars is a fun framework to structure your trip around the south!
What am I reading?
Just finished: A Thousand Ships (Natalie Haynes)
Currently reading: The Silence of the Girls (Pat Barker)
Up next: A Deadly Education (Naomi Novik)
We didn’t stay there because the reviews were terrible.
Recall from Morocco that Amazigh is the preferred term for Berbers.