Matmata Travel Guide

Matmata is a small Berber settlement in southern Tunisia where the traditional homes are dug into the ground rather than built above it. These troglodyte pit dwellings — circular craters carved from soft sandstone, with rooms tunnelled into the walls around a central open courtyard — have been used for centuries as a practical response to extreme desert heat. Underground, temperatures stay around 18-20°C year-round, even when the surface reaches 45°C in summer. The settlement sits roughly 40 km southwest of Gabès, about 500 km south of Tunis.

Old Matmata vs New Matmata

There are two settlements called Matmata, and this matters for navigation. Old Matmata (Matmata Ancienne) is the original village with the pit homes — this is what visitors come to see. New Matmata (Matmata El-Jedida) is a modern town built on the surface about 15 km north, established in the 1960s when the government relocated some families after severe flooding. New Matmata has the bus stop, a few basic shops, and not much else of interest. Make sure your driver or GPS is heading to Old Matmata.

The troglodyte homes

The pit homes are the genuine attraction and they are more impressive in person than in photographs. A typical home consists of a central pit roughly 6-10 metres across and 6-7 metres deep, open to the sky. Rooms — bedrooms, kitchens, storage chambers, animal shelters — are carved into the pit walls and connected by short tunnels. Some homes have multiple levels, with steep carved stairways between courtyards. Several families still live in traditional homes and welcome visitors for a small tip (2-5 TND is appropriate). The homes nearest the main road are the most visited, but walking further into the village reveals quieter ones.

Hotel Sidi Driss

Hotel Sidi Driss is the specific location where George Lucas filmed the interior courtyard scenes of Luke Skywalker’s childhood home (the Lars homestead) in the original 1977 Star Wars film. The same location was used again for Attack of the Clones in 2002, and some of the set decorations from that later shoot — painted murals, prop details — remain visible on the walls. The hotel is a functioning guesthouse built into a troglodyte pit home with several interconnected courtyards. Visitors can enter and look around for a small fee (around 5 TND) even without staying. Rooms are basic but atmospheric — expect simple beds, shared bathrooms, and the novelty of sleeping in a cave. Rates are around 60-80 TND for a double room including dinner and breakfast.

Tamezret

The Berber hilltop village of Tamezret sits about 5 km west of Old Matmata and is worth the short detour. It is less visited than Matmata itself and has a quieter, more authentic atmosphere. The stone houses are built into the hillside rather than underground, and the village contains a small Berber heritage museum (Musee Tamezret) with exhibits on traditional clothing, tools, olive pressing, and daily life. The views from the village over the surrounding arid hills are excellent. Tamezret is Amazigh-speaking and gives a sense of the Berber culture that predates Arab settlement in the region.

Visiting practicalities

Matmata is not a place that needs a full day. Two to three hours is enough to walk through the pit homes, visit Hotel Sidi Driss, and take in the setting. Adding Tamezret extends the visit to half a day.

There is no public transport to Old Matmata. The options are:

• Hire car: the most flexible approach. The road from Gabès (C107) is paved and straightforward. From Douz, the drive takes about 1.5 hours via Matmata El-Jedida.
• Organised tour: most southern Tunisia circuits (typically 2-3 day loops from Tunis or the coast) include Matmata as a stop. See our Sahara desert tours guide for options.
• Taxi from Gabès: a return taxi from Gabès with waiting time costs roughly 50-70 TND.

Best route combinations

Matmata fits naturally into a southern circuit. The strongest two-day combination is Douz (Sahara dunes, camel trek, Ksar Ghilane) on day one, then Matmata and Tamezret on day two before continuing north to Gabès or east to Djerba. From Tozeur, Matmata is roughly 3 hours by road via Kebili and Douz — the drive itself passes through some of southern Tunisia’s most dramatic landscapes.

For travellers coming from Djerba, Matmata is a feasible day trip (about 1.5 hours each way from the causeway), though it works better as an overnight stop combined with Douz to avoid too much time in the car.

Where to stay

Besides Hotel Sidi Driss, Old Matmata has a couple of other troglodyte-style guesthouses: Dar Troglodyte and Hotel Les Berbères both offer cave rooms at similar rates (60-100 TND per night with meals). The accommodation is basic throughout — this is not a destination for hotel comfort. Most travellers sleep in Douz or Gabès and visit Matmata during the day.

Is Matmata worth visiting?

Yes. The troglodyte homes are genuinely unusual — not a recreated tourist attraction but a living (if diminishing) architectural tradition. Combined with the Star Wars connection and the dramatic southern landscape, Matmata is one of the most visually memorable stops in Tunisia. It works best as part of a broader southern route rather than as a standalone destination.