Matmata and its troglodyte houses

Matmata sits in a dry, cratered landscape in the Gabès governorate, and from the road it barely looks inhabited: a scatter of low earth mounds and the odd satellite dish poking out of the ground. The town’s Berber families solved the region’s brutal summer heat centuries ago by digging down rather than building up, hollowing out courtyards and rooms in the soft tuf rock a few metres below the surface, where temperatures stay markedly more stable than in the open air.

Some of these pit-houses are still lived in, several have become simple guesthouses, and one, Hotel Sidi Driss, is known well beyond Tunisia as a filming location for the original Star Wars. Whatever brings you here, this isn’t a polished heritage site with information panels; it’s a working village that happens to have an extraordinary building tradition, and the best visits treat it that way.

Where	Gabès governorate, southern Tunisia, about 40 km south-west of Gabès town
Cost	Around 5 TND (roughly €1.50) to look around a private pit-house courtyard; a coffee or lunch at Sidi Driss typically 10 to 25 TND (€3 to €7.50)
Time needed	Half a day for the village itself; a full day if you add Toujane or Tamezret
Getting there	Car, organised tour or louage via Gabès; around 5 to 6 hours’ drive from Tunis
Best time	Morning or late afternoon, avoiding the flat midday light and the worst of the heat between May and September

Homes dug into the rock, not built on it

The basic design is consistent across the older Matmata houses: a circular or oval courtyard is excavated first, sunk several metres into the ground, and then rooms are tunnelled horizontally off it at courtyard level, sometimes on two storeys where the rock allows. A sloped tunnel or a flight of cut steps connects the courtyard to the surface, and that’s the only way in. From above, all you see is the rim of the pit and perhaps a low wall; the actual living space is invisible until you’re standing at the edge looking down. It’s an efficient answer to a genuinely hostile climate — Matmata summers push well past 40°C, and the earth a few metres down barely fluctuates between day and night, let alone season to season.

Families historically used the courtyard as the shared social space, with separate rooms opening off it for sleeping, storage and, in larger households, for livestock or grain. Furnishings were minimal by design: niches cut directly into the rock walls served as shelves and cupboards, and doorways were often just openings hung with cloth rather than fitted doors.

Some houses that are still occupied today have added electricity and basic plumbing, but the underlying structure — the sunk courtyard, the tunnelled rooms — hasn’t changed much from what nineteenth-century travellers described. It’s worth saying plainly that Matmata is not a reconstruction or an open-air museum built for visitors; the pit-house tradition is real vernacular architecture that a shrinking number of Berber families still use as their actual homes, even as many others have moved into conventional houses in the newer part of town.

Hotel Sidi Driss and the Star Wars connection

Hotel Sidi Driss is the pit-house nearly every visitor asks about by name, because its underground rooms and courtyard were used for interior shots of the Lars family homestead in the original 1977 Star Wars, and the production returned to Tunisia for later films in the series. The hotel leans into the connection without overselling it: there are a handful of framed photos and props in the courtyard, and the rooms themselves are recognisably the ones on screen, but this is still a modest, functioning budget hotel rather than a theme-park attraction. Walking down into the courtyard costs little or nothing if you’re having a coffee or lunch there, and most people spend twenty to thirty minutes looking around before moving on.

It’s honest to say the novelty carries the visit more than the setting itself does. The rooms are small, the lighting is dim by design, and there isn’t much explanatory material beyond what a driver or guide tells you. If you’ve never seen the film, the appeal drops considerably, though the underground architecture is still worth the short stop on its own terms.

A two-day tour between Tataouine and Matmata built around the Star Wars filming locations covers Sidi Driss along with the more elaborate sets further south near Tataouine and Ksar Hadada, which gives the Star Wars angle far more depth than a Matmata stop alone. If the film locations are the main draw for you, our dedicated guide to Star Wars filming locations in southern Tunisia maps out the full set, from Sidi Driss here in Matmata to the more elaborate Tatooine sets further south.

Other troglodyte hotels and guesthouses

Sidi Driss isn’t the only underground hotel in Matmata. Hotel Marhala, a converted set of pit-houses, is plainer and quieter, drawing travellers doing the southern loop by car rather than day-tour groups. Diar El Barbar sits a step up in comfort, built in troglodyte style with more modern rooms around sunken courtyards and, unusually for Matmata, a swimming pool — a reasonable overnight base if you want a proper bed and a shower after a dusty day.

Hotel	Style	Typical double room	Best for
Hotel Sidi Driss	Original pit-house, film-linked	Around 60 to 90 TND (€18 to €27)	Star Wars stop, budget travellers
Hotel Marhala	Converted pit-house, simple	Around 70 to 100 TND (€21 to €30)	Quiet overnight, road-trippers
Diar El Barbar	Troglodyte-style with pool	Around 150 to 220 TND (€45 to €65)	Comfort-focused overnight stays

None of these are luxury properties, and rooms are intentionally small and dim, which is the point of the design rather than a flaw. If you’re only passing through for a couple of hours, a coffee at Sidi Driss’s courtyard sees a pit-house interior without booking a room anywhere.

Getting to Matmata from Tunis, Djerba and Gabès

By car or organised tour from Tunis

Matmata is roughly 450 km from Tunis, and the drive takes five to six hours on the A1 motorway toward Gabès and then a secondary road inland. Very few visitors do this as a single-purpose day trip from the capital given the driving time involved; it makes far more sense as one stop within a longer southern loop that also takes in Douz, the edge of the Sahara, or the mountain oases near Tozeur. A two-day tour linking El Jem, Matmata, Douz, Tozeur, Chebika and Tamerza is a reasonable way to see Matmata alongside several of the south’s other highlights without driving yourself the whole way.

From Djerba or Gabès

If you’re already based on Djerba, Matmata is a much shorter trip, around two hours by road via the Zarzis or Médenine route, and a popular half-day or full-day excursion from the island’s resorts. From Gabès town itself it’s closer still, under an hour on a reasonably direct road, which makes Gabès the practical base if you want to see Matmata without committing to an overnight stay in the south.

Louages and public transport

Louages (shared taxis) run between Gabès and Matmata fairly regularly during the day, and this is the budget option if you’re travelling independently without a rental car. It’s a workable route, but onward connections from Matmata itself to Toujane or Tamezret are thin, so most independent travellers either negotiate a taxi for the loop once they’re in Matmata or accept seeing the town centre only. A rental car gives far more flexibility for this whole area; see our notes on hiring a car in Tunisia and driving in Tunisia if you’re weighing that option against a tour.

Toujane, terraces above a dry valley

Toujane sits around 18 km south-west of Matmata, perched on a hillside above a valley terraced with olive and fig trees, and it’s a useful contrast to Matmata itself: rather than pit-houses dug into flat ground, Toujane’s older stone houses climb the slope in tiers, with a ruined ksar (fortified granary) crowning the hill above the village.

The drive up is worth doing slowly — the switchback road gives good views back over the terraces, and the village itself is small enough to walk through in under an hour. Local weavers in Toujane produce wool rugs and blankets in geometric Berber patterns, sold directly from small shops or homes rather than through the larger souk network, and prices are generally lower than in Tunis, though bargaining is still expected.

There’s little formal infrastructure here — no ticket office, no set visiting hours — so a visit is really just walking the lanes, taking in the view, and perhaps buying a rug if one catches your eye. It pairs naturally with Matmata as a half-day loop, and several of the desert-region day tours from Gabès or Djerba include a Toujane stop alongside Matmata for exactly this reason.

Tamezret and its old Berber quarter

Tamezret, a short drive north of Matmata, is another hilltop Berber village, and it holds a distinction worth knowing: it’s one of the few places in this part of Tunisia where the old Berber language, Tamazight, is still spoken by some residents alongside Arabic, rather than having been fully replaced. The old quarter has stone houses built up the hillside in a similar style to Toujane, with a small local museum near the top displaying traditional dress, tools and household objects from the region — modest and low on signage in English, but a useful twenty minutes if you want context beyond what a driver typically explains.

The newer part of Tamezret has spread down the hill in conventional concrete housing, which is worth mentioning honestly: like much of the Matmata area, the picturesque stone quarter is the historic core rather than the whole town, and depopulation toward easier, flatter housing has been steady for decades. Visiting Tamezret alongside Toujane and Matmata gives a reasonably complete picture of Berber settlement patterns in this pocket of the south — pit-houses on the plain, terraced stone villages on the hills — in a single loop that adds perhaps two extra hours to a Matmata visit.

What actually happens on a pit-house visit

Beyond Hotel Sidi Driss, several private pit-houses in and around Matmata open their courtyards to visitors for a small fee, usually paid directly to the family rather than through any formal ticketing system. A typical visit involves being shown down into the courtyard, having the different rooms pointed out — kitchen, storage, sleeping quarters — and sometimes being offered mint tea, which is a polite gesture worth a small tip rather than an obligation. These are genuinely private homes or former homes, not staged reconstructions, so it’s worth being a respectful guest: ask before photographing family members, and don’t wander into rooms uninvited.

Set expectations modestly. A single pit-house visit takes fifteen to twenty-five minutes and doesn’t come with much narrative unless your guide fills it in, so the value is mostly in seeing the structure itself rather than learning a great deal of detailed history on the spot. If deeper cultural context matters to you, our broader guide to Berber heritage in Tunisia covers more of the history behind what you’re looking at than a quick courtyard stop can.

Building a desert loop around Matmata

Because Matmata is such a long drive from Tunis on its own, nearly everyone folds it into a wider southern itinerary, and there are a few sensible ways to structure that. The most common pairs Matmata with Douz, the town regarded as the Sahara’s gateway, and continues toward Tozeur and the mountain oases, which is roughly the route covered by the two-day El Jem–Matmata–Douz–Tozeur tour mentioned earlier.

From Douz, many travellers add a night in the desert itself; a Sahara overnight camel trek departing from the Douz area gives a proper night under the stars away from any town, which is a very different experience from a single afternoon stop at Matmata. Our page on camel trekking in the Tunisian Sahara covers what to expect on the saddle and how the routes typically run.

If Tunis is your base and you’d rather not drive yourself the full distance south, a two-day desert tour from Tunis, Sousse or Hammamet with a night under canvas reaches the desert region without requiring you to plan the logistics yourself, though it typically prioritises the dunes and camp experience over an extended Matmata stop. For planning the wider trip, it’s worth comparing options on our page on Sahara tours from Tunis, compared and deciding between a two-day or three-day Sahara tour depending on how much of the south you want to cover.

Costs, timing and what to bring

Matmata itself is inexpensive: courtyard visits run a few dinars, a meal at one of the simple restaurants near the centre is typically 15 to 30 TND (roughly €4.50 to €9) per person, and even an overnight stay in one of the pit-house hotels rarely exceeds €30 for a double room. The real cost of a Matmata visit is usually the transport — fuel or tour price for a long drive — rather than anything you spend once you’re there. If you’re travelling further south to Ksar Ghilane or across Chott el Jerid, budget realistically for a multi-day trip rather than treating Matmata as a quick add-on to a Tunis-based holiday.

What to wear and bring

Modest, practical clothing works best: covered shoulders and knees are appreciated in the village generally, and closed shoes help on the uneven steps down into pit-house courtyards. Bring water, since shops in the older part of Matmata are limited, and a hat if you’re visiting between late spring and early autumn, when the open ground between houses offers no shade at all. If your route continues into the desert proper, see our page on what to pack for a night in the Sahara, since Matmata’s needs (sun, dust, modest clothing) are really a lighter version of the same list.

Best time of year and day

Spring (March to May) and autumn (October to November) are the most comfortable months, with daytime temperatures that make walking between the village, Toujane and Tamezret genuinely pleasant. Summer visits are common but demanding — see our notes on how hot the Sahara region gets in summer before planning a July or August trip through this area. Within a single day, morning light before around ten and the couple of hours before sunset both work better for photography and comfort than the flat, harsh light of midday.

Mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions about Matmata’s troglodyte houses

How old are the pit-houses in Matmata?

There’s no single reliable date, since the tradition developed gradually and existing houses have been rebuilt and re-dug over generations, but the style is generally understood to be centuries old, likely originating well before Ottoman rule in the region. What’s on view today is a living continuation of the technique rather than an archaeological ruin, which is part of what makes it different from most other stops in southern Tunisia.

Do people still actually live in the pit-houses?

Some do, though the number has declined steadily as newer, conventional housing has spread through the town. Several formerly residential pit-houses have become the small hotels and guesthouses visitors stay in or pass through, including Hotel Sidi Driss, while others remain private family homes not generally open to casual visitors.

Which Star Wars scenes were filmed at Hotel Sidi Driss?

Sidi Driss provided interior settings used for the Lars family homestead in the original 1977 film, and Tunisia’s desert locations more broadly, including sites further south near Tataouine, were used again for later films in the series. Sidi Driss itself is the most accessible of these locations for a short stop, while the more elaborate purpose-built sets are further south.

Is a guide necessary to visit Matmata, or can I explore independently?

You can visit independently by car, particularly the Sidi Driss courtyard and the town centre, but a guide or organised tour adds real value for the pit-house visits with private families and for finding your way to Toujane and Tamezret, where signage is minimal. Independent travellers without a car will find a guide or arranged taxi close to essential for reaching the hillside villages.

How does Matmata compare to the semi-troglodyte villages further south, like Chenini?

Matmata’s pit-houses are dug straight down into flat ground, while villages further south toward Tataouine, built into hillsides with cave-like rooms cut horizontally into rock faces, use a different technique again. Both are genuine Berber vernacular architecture, but they look and feel distinct, so seeing both if your itinerary allows gives a fuller picture of the region’s building traditions rather than assuming one represents the other.

Can I stay overnight in one of the troglodyte hotels?

Yes, and it’s a reasonable way to experience the pit-house design properly rather than just passing through for an hour. Rooms are small and simply furnished by nature of the architecture, so set expectations accordingly, but a night in Hotel Sidi Driss or Hotel Marhala is inexpensive and gives a much better sense of the underground living conditions than a daytime stop alone.

Is Matmata suitable for a day trip with children?

The novelty of the pit-houses and the Star Wars connection tends to appeal to children, and the walking involved is manageable for most ages, though the steps down into courtyards can be uneven and warrant supervision. The long drive from Tunis is the bigger consideration for families more than anything about the site itself.

What should I eat while I’m in Matmata?

Options are limited but functional: a handful of simple restaurants near the town centre serve standard Tunisian fare — couscous, grilled meats, salads — and Hotel Sidi Driss and Hotel Marhala both serve meals to non-guests passing through. Don’t expect variety or refinement; this is a practical stop for a meal rather than a food destination in its own right.