This post of from the small Berber town of Matmata, still in the Tataouine district. Many of the residents here live in traditional troglodyte houses. Troglodyte houses are made one of two ways. First, many are made by digging a large pit in the ground that’s left open and around the pit’s perimeter, artificial caves are dug into the mountain to be used as rooms. Sometimes, multiple pits are dug and then connected by tunnels or passageways. These houses are usually two-stories deep with ramps, stairways, doors, and openings, but no windows. They tend to be dark and we had to be careful when walking inside them.

One troglodyte house that we visited was the Hotel Sidi Idriss. It was originally a traditional Berber house. In Star Wars, this was Luke Skywalker’s desert homestead, appearing in at least two of the film series. Matmata was also the location for the Disco scene in the very first Star Wars movie. That was one of my all-time favorite movie scenes.

The first photo is to show the lay of the land and a traditional Berber troglodyte house from the ground above it.

Vicky is standing at the entrance ramp to the hotel. The ramp slowly goes down into the underground house.

The interior courtyard is quite large with many doors, steps, and ramps around it. It also has quite a bit of leftover Star Wars memorabilia.

I don’t know if this was the theoretical bar entrance for the scene in the movie but lots of Star Wars stuff here.

The last photo is to show that the house, now a hotel, is indeed two stories deep in the ground. As we walked through the hotel, we were always going up and down on ramps or stairs.