The Last Jedi - Tunisia The Galaxy of Star Wars in Tunisia

DJERBA

The Tunisian island of Djerba, recognized for its stunning Mediterranean beaches of soft sand and sparkling blue water, invites many tourists to its beautiful shores each year. More than just a popular beach getaway, however, Djerba also stands out among Star Wars fans as an important filming location for the fantasy epic. Serving as the film set for several scenes from Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, Djerba is a popular destination for curious Star Wars fans who cannot wait for 'Star Wars VIII: the last Jedi' craving to explore the remains of the filmmaking sets. If you want to see it firsthand, we recommend you visit our 4 star hotel in Djerba that will leave you breathless.

RACHEL GRAF

In the town of Ajim, a fishing port on the island of Djerba, filmmakers shot the exterior scenes of the Mos Eisley Cantina. Once used as a traditional Berber bakery, the building was left abandoned before the Star Wars crew arrived in 1976. On the outskirts of Ajim in the southwestern corner of the island, the iconic structure used for shooting the exterior of Ben’s Hermitage, where Obi-Wan Kenobi lived during is exile, stands at the edge of the sea. Finally, on the west coast of Djerba, the mosque at Sidi Jemour was used to film scenes from Anchorhead and Tosche Station, deleted from the original film but appearing later in the Special Edition of A New Hope.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

MATMATA

Prominently featured in many episodes of the Star Wars film series, the village of Matmata in the south of Tunisia is now one of the most-visited places in the country today. In this small Tunisian village, the Star Wars filming crew found the perfect setting for many interior scenes of the Lars Homestead, Luke Skywalker’s intergalactic childhood home on the desert world of Tatooine. Although in 'Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi', Luke changes home radically, you can still visit his homestead, actually modeled after the traditional Berber cave dwellings of the village. If you want to visit, Iberostar offers different hotels in Tunisia that adapt to your vacation.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

Originally designed to protect the people from the heat of the desert, the Berbers of Matmata dug out large pits used for courtyards surrounded by a mazelike network of underground rooms. Today, these underground dwellings have become one of the most famous and recognizable Star Wars landmarks in the world. After filming was finished for the original Star Wars, the set was later rebuilt in 2000 for scenes from Attack of the Clones and remains intact as a popular sightseeing destination for fans and tourists today.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

TOZEUR

Although George Lucas had originally imagined Tatooine as a jungle planet, he later refined his vision as the idea of filming in the jungle made him feel “itchy.” The director eventually found the perfect location for his desert planet in Tunisia near the Sahara. The beautiful oasis city of Tozeur in southwest Tunisia provided an excellent shooting location for many scenes from the epic. Located in the middle of the Sahara Desert, the unearthly and isolated landscape surrounding the city effortlessly portrays the setting of a faraway galaxy. Used for multiple scenes of the Star Wars films, the outskirts of Tozeur provided the filming location for the city of Mos Espa and interior shots of the Lars Homestead. Filming in this location, however, wasn’t always easy.  A fierce sandstorm in the desert outside of Tozeur once destroyed many of the Tatooine sets and delayed shooting for a few days. Today however, much of the original film set has been left entirely intact and abandoned in the desert, where Mos Espa still exists today.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

OUNG JMEL

Oung Jmel, which receives its Arabic name from the distinctive rock formation known as “Camel Head Rock,” lays just a few kilometers from the set of Mos Espa in southern Tunisia. The filming of scenes from both The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones took place at Oung Jmel, which served as the setting for the arrival of Darth Maul on Tatooine in the middle of the night and the release of the Sith probes in pursuit of Qui-Gon. One set was built here for Anakin Skywalker to park his podracer, and at the request of the Tunisian Tourist Office, the sets were left as is.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

MEDENINE

The town of Medenine, located in the southeastern region of Tunisia, appears in several key scenes of The Phantom Menace, Episode I of the Star Wars series. Once an important trading city for the Berber people, Medenine was home to many granaries known as ksars. Filmmakers used one of these granaries, Ksar Medenine, to portray “Slave Quarters Row” and the exterior of Anakin Skywalker’s home in several shots from the film.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

MIDES CANYON

About forty miles from Tozeur in southern Tunisia, Mides Canyon stretches three kilometers across the spectacular, barren landscape.  The impressive gorge with its many layers of tawny-colored rock sets the scene for the pod race on Tatooine in Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace. Looking out over the seemingly endless, unearthly, and desolate landscape of stratified rocks and deep ravines, it’s easy to see why filmmakers chose this location to portray a galaxy far, far away.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

SIDI BOUHLEL

The filming of many shots from A New Hope and The Phantom Menace took place at a canyon near Sidi Bouhlel, now often referred to as the “Star Wars Canyon.” The captivating landscape of the wild, spectacular canyon fittingly paints the picture of an otherworldly galaxy. It was here that filmmakers shot scenes from the area known as the Juntland Wastes on Tatooine in the films. Inside the impressive ravines of the canyon at Sidi Bouhlel, the Tusken Raiders attacked Luke Skywalker just before he met Obi-Wan Kenobi for the first time in A New Hope.  During the filming this film, the Libyan government became suspicious of large military vehicle parked near their border. So at the polite request of the authorities, George Lucas had to move his Jawa sandcrawler elsewhere.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17

CHOTT EL JERID

This giant dry salt lake in the Sahara Desert of southern Tunisia was the filming location for the exterior shots of the Lars Homestead where Luke Skywalker was raised in Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope. The remote, desert landscape set the stage for the iconic scene in which Luke stares out across the horizon towards the two suns of Tatooine. While the salt plain set was left abandoned after the filming, filmmakers returned to the site a quarter of a century later and rebuilt the set to shoot scenes for the prequel trilogy for Episode II, Attack of the Clones. Today, restoration work has left the film set in its original state with its well-recognized, igloo-like structure in the center of an endless desert.  Did you know that the giant krayt dragon skeleton that C-3PO walks past in A New Hope is actually a leftover prop from a 1975 Disney film "One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing"? The crew flew in the artificial diplodocus from the studios and it still remains in the Tunisian desert today.

RACHEL GRAF | 28/09/17