Matmata and Tataouine

The troglodytic houses of Matmata, together with the curious honeycomb-like granaries known as ghorfas and the fortified settlements called ksour that are prolific in and around Tataouine, are so different to most known architectural styles that they look almost alien. This may be why film director George Lucas was so taken with the area that he featured it as Luke Skywalker’s home planet in his Star Wars films.

The curious Berber troglodytic houses of Matmata, or haouch hafera, were developed to combat the extremes of the southern Tunisian climate. The houses typically are sunk vertically into the ground to a depth of 7m to 8m and have courtyards opening to the sky. Each home has a single sloping entrance leading through a tunnel to a plastered courtyard, usually featuring two rooms cut into the rock. The origins of these houses are ancient and go back to at least the 4th century BC.

Tataouine is a former base for the French Foreign Legion. It makes an excellent centre to explore the dramatic ghorfas and ksour built by the Berbers to defend themselves against the Arab invasion. The fortified village of Chenini has one of the most beautiful locations in Tunisia. It is built on a cliff face with an ancient and picturesque whitewashed mosque at its centre.

Nearby Douiret has so many terraces of cave dwellings that the village has been compared to an ant heap! To the north, Medenine has some fine examples of the honeycomb-like ghorfas, which are fitted together into a defensive settlement. Still, arguably the finest examples of this style of architecture are found at Ksar Hededa – a site that George Lucas used in The Phantom Menace – and at the spectacular Ksar Ouled Soltane where the ghorfas rise five tiers high.