‘Star Wars Holiday’, Tunisia
Are your children (or even you) a Star Wars enthusiast?
If so a visit to the small village of Matamata in Tunisia just might be the holiday for you! The hotel ‘Sidi Driss’ has been nicknamed the Star Wars hotel because George Lucas used it as a set for Lars homestead on the dessert planet of ‘Tatooine’ (in the original Star Wars movie when Luke Skywalker gazed at the two suns, and used again for the more recent ‘Attack of the Clones’). In fact Tataouine does exist – it’s a town a few miles south of the filming location.
The Sidi Driss hotel is a traditional Berber house, built centuries ago with interior underground courtyards, or pits. The hotel has 5 pits and the one used in the film now houses a small bar and rooms used for serving breakfast. The guest rooms are situated in caves off other pits. Being in caves means that the rooms have no windows, but the temperature stays comfortable night and day. The interiors are basic (matching the price), painted white and have electricity and toilets and showers are shared. If you prefer a little more luxury you could stay nearby and make a day-trip to the hotel (coaches do turn up regularly) but you won’t experience the same solitude and photo opportunities without other people in the middle of them!.
Matamata is a small village and most of the population lives on tourism and folklore exhibitions in their homes. Little is known about the history of the place but it is generally believed that the homes were first built to avoid being killed by invading Roman Empire. Since then the settlement has remained hidden for centuries only to be discovered by the outside world in 1967.
Other local Star Wars Attractions are:
• The exterior of Luke Skywalker’s house was filmed 300 kilometers west on Chott el Jerid
• The guly where R2D2 is captured is Sidi Bouhel east of Tozeur (known as ‘Star Wars Canyon’
• Tataouine has some of the original Star Wars sets
A couple of other facts about the area:
• Tataouine appeared in the end of the movie The X-Files where an extraterrestrial viral experiment facility was held
• In June 1931 a rare meteorite (made of achondrite) landed at Tataouine and around 12 kg of fragments were found
Perhaps the area was fated to be famous for space?!
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