The locations are in the south, and you can visit all the main ones. The Mos Espa set built for The Phantom Menace still stands in the dunes near Ong Jemal, about 29 km from Tozeur. The Lars homestead of the first film is the underground hotel at Matmata. The slave quarters of Mos Espa are the ksar at Hdada, near Tataouine — the town that gave the planet its name, though its sets are elsewhere.
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| Place | In the films | What you see | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mos Espa, near Ong Jemal | Set built for The Phantom Menace | Domes, doorways and moisture vaporators, weathered by sand and partly buried by it. | By 4x4 across the sand, from Tozeur or Nefta. |
| Sidi Driss, Matmata | The Lars homestead in the first Star Wars film | An underground courtyard house, now a hotel, which has kept its set dressing. | By road; the hotel is open to visit. |
| Ksar Hdada, near Tataouine | The slave quarters of Mos Espa in The Phantom Menace | A fortified granary of vaulted cells, partly restored; the film crew painted parts of it, and you can still see where. | By road, on the Tataouine circuit. |
| Tataouine | The name of Tatooine | The town at the centre of the ksour country. The film sets themselves are elsewhere. | By road; a base for the ridge villages. |
Two clusters, about 270 km apart in a straight line. Tozeur and Nefta are the base for Mos Espa and the mountain oases. Matmata and Tataouine are the base for Sidi Driss, Ksar Hdada and the ksour, and the ridge villages of Chenini and Douiret. A trip that covers both is a circuit, not a day out: Mos Espa is about 377 km from Tunis in a straight line.
These are not theme parks. Mos Espa is a film set that was never taken down: the sand is slowly taking it back, and part of the appeal is that it is weathered and quiet. Sidi Driss is a working hotel. Ksar Hdada is one of the more atmospheric ksour whether or not you care about the films, because you can walk right through it rather than around it. The best light at Mos Espa is at sunrise, which needs an early start. October to April is the season; in summer the south is too hot for a walk across open sand (see the best time to visit Tunisia).
All 11 circuits, with prices →
In the south of the country. The Mos Espa set near Ong Jemal, the underground hotel at Matmata that was the Lars homestead, and the ksar at Hdada near Tataouine are the main locations you can visit.
Yes. It is still standing in the dunes near Ong Jemal, and it is reached by 4x4 across the sand, usually from Tozeur or Nefta. Sunrise is the best light.
The name is: Tataouine is a real town in the south of Tunisia, and the name was borrowed for the planet. The film sets themselves are elsewhere in the south.
Three days covers Mos Espa, Ong Jemal and the mountain oases from a base in Tozeur. Four days adds the ksour and Matmata in the south.
Distances are straight-line, measured between the coordinates on our map of the sites; road distances are longer. Prices are per vehicle and come from the same database the 34 tours and 1,392 transfer fares.
