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What Matmata is known for
Matmata is a Berber village in southern Tunisia whose commune counted 3,926 people at the 2024 census. Its houses are carved into the Dahar escarpment and were rebuilt underground after the 1969 flood. In 1976 a film crew shot Luke Skywalker’s boyhood home inside one of them.
Homes dug down
The Amazigh Matmata tribe, described by Ibn Khaldoun in his history of the Berbers, dug homes straight down into the Dahar escarpment, with rooms hollowed sideways off a central crater. Then in 1969, 22 days of rain flooded the pits and collapsed many, forcing the village to turn to Gabes for help.
The rain handed Matmata an exit. The government built houses above ground, and a new town rose on the plateau to take the mountain population. What the pits held was an arid-land economy of herds, rain-fed terraces and perched gardens, with cereals, dates, olives and dried figs stored in the storey above each room.
Digging the pits out again
Most families dug out their pits again and stayed near those gardens. One dwelling had already opened as the Hotel Sidi Driss in 1968, and in 1976 a film crew shot Luke Skywalker’s boyhood home inside it, dressing the courtyard as the Lars homestead. The set came down, then was rebuilt for a 2000 sequel shoot.
What the pits earn
Today only a few families still live in the pits, the old village thinned by the exodus to the new town on the plateau. Hotel Sidi Driss and Hotel Marhala still take guests underground, and Sidi Driss draws Star Wars pilgrims to Luke Skywalker’s set. Matmata lies inside the newly designated Dahar UNESCO Global Geopark.
Why it worked
It worked without anyone deciding it. The state built a relocation town on the plateau and the old village slowly emptied into it, but the craters that stayed were already renting rooms, so a film crew found a set instead of building one.
What carries the place now is the architecture itself, a house you enter by going down rather than up, and the pits hold a hotel trade, a geopark and a spot on Tunisia’s tentative World Heritage list.
Questions people ask about Matmata
Why is Matmata, Tunisia famous?
Matmata is known for its underground houses, dug down into the Dahar escarpment, and for Hotel Sidi Driss, where a film crew shot Luke Skywalker's boyhood home in 1976. Visitors can still sleep underground at Hotel Sidi Driss and Hotel Marhala.
What happened in Matmata in 1969?
In 1969, 22 days of rain flooded the pits of Matmata and collapsed many of them. The government built houses above ground and a new town rose on the plateau, but most families dug out their pits again.
Which Star Wars scene was filmed in Matmata?
In 1976 a film crew shot Luke Skywalker's boyhood home inside the Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata, dressing the courtyard as the Lars homestead. The set came down, then was rebuilt for a 2000 sequel shoot.
How far is Matmata from Gabes?
Matmata is about 40 km from Gabes. After the 1969 flood forced the village to turn to Gabes for help, the government built houses above ground and a new town rose on the plateau.