Star Wars Filming Locations Near Djerba

Every Tatooine location near Djerba

Distances are straight-line from Houmt Souk; the road is longer.

Star Wars locations on Djerba island

In early April 1976 the crew of A New Hope spent its last Tunisian shooting days on Djerba’s quiet west coast. The three island sites sit close together, so a hire car, a taxi or a scooter covers them in a morning. No organised desert tour includes them, because they lie in the opposite direction from every southbound route.

Ajim: Mos Eisley and the cantina exterior

Ajim, the small ferry and sponge-fishing town in the south-west, is Mos Eisley. Specialist researchers date the filming here to 2 and 3 April 1976. The cantina exterior is an old domed building near the town centre, the landspeeder crossed the plaza beside it, and the stormtrooper checkpoint with the Jedi mind trick was staged in the side streets nearby. The cantina interior was shot in a studio in England.

Be ready for a let-down. Construction and neglect have changed or abandoned almost every reference point in the neighbourhood, and the domed building is derelict. Bring screenshots from the film and match the angles yourself. It’s free, it’s a residential street, and the light is best early in the morning.

Amghar Mosque: Obi-Wan Kenobi’s house

This is the most confused site online. Many blogs and some tour listings say Obi-Wan’s house is the Sidi Jemour mosque. Production-record research by the fan archive Galaxy Tours places it at the Amghar Mosque, a small 10th-century Ibadi coastal mosque on the outskirts of Ajim, filmed on 4 April 1976 as background footage with no actors; the landspeeder was added in post-production. The 1997 Special Edition replaced the shot with a CGI-enhanced clifftop miniature, so you’ll only see the real building in pre-1997 copies of A New Hope.

It’s a lonely little white mosque by the shore. UNESCO listed it in September 2023 as one of the monuments in Djerba’s World Heritage inscription, and the street artist Invader added an Obi-Wan mosaic to its south wall in 2019. Visiting the outside is free. Treat it as the historic religious building it is: no climbing, no costumes on the walls.

Sidi Jemour Mosque: Tosche Station and Anchorhead

Further up the west coast, on a rocky point, stands the whitewashed Sidi Jemour Mosque. The crew shot Anchorhead and Tosche Station footage here, with Luke, Biggs and the power-converter crowd, and almost all of it was cut from the 1977 film. The camera was kept low and pointed inland to hide the sea. It’s free to visit, and sunset there is lovely.

Self-guided half day: Houmt Souk, Sidi Jemour in the morning, the Amghar Mosque, the Ajim streets, then lunch by Ajim port. Allow three to four hours, and agree a taxi’s waiting price before you set off.

Confirmed: Hotel Sidi Driss, Luke’s childhood home

Matmata. The interior of the Lars homestead in A New Hope: the courtyard, the droids arriving home and the blue-milk dining room. The hotel is five pit courtyards; four hold guest rooms and the fifth, the one from the film, is now the restaurant. The dressing came down after the 1977 shoot and was rebuilt in 2000 for Attack of the Clones, when Anakin meets the Lars family, then left in place, which is why what you walk into looks like the film itself.

It is still a working, basic hotel with shared bathrooms, and many tours stop here for lunch. Photos and set dressing fill the rooms around the dining courtyard. Fans love standing in the dining room, though some reviewers say newer murals make it hard to recreate shots exactly. Non-guests usually pay a small entry fee unless lunch is part of their tour; check the amount on the day. Allow 30 to 45 minutes, and arrive before the midday tour groups if you can.

The Tataouine ksour: Mos Espa’s slave quarters

Lucas took the name Tatooine from Tataouine, but no scenes were shot in the town. For The Phantom Menace the 1997 crew used fortified granaries, called ksour, in the south-east. Set building began in early July 1997, and specialist researchers date the filming at Ksar Medenine and Ksar Hadada to 9 and 10 August 1997.

Confirmed: Ksar Medenine (Ksar Ommarsia)

Medenine, on the Tataouine route. A ksar in the middle of the modern town, its last surviving row of ghorfas now facing onto a bazaar street, played part of the Mos Espa slave quarters alongside Ksar Hadada, including Anakin’s hovel and the scene where he says goodbye to his mother. You may see it called Ksar Ommarsia.

It is a shorter, more central stop than the other two: no separate excursion, just a detour off the main street in a town most Tataouine routes already pass through.

Confirmed: Ksar Hadada

North of Tataouine, near Ghomrassen. A stacked mud-brick ksar that stood in for the Mos Espa slave quarters, the quarter where Anakin lives and where Qui-Gon Jinn talks with Shmi Skywalker on the porch. The hand-painted board at the gate still credits George Lucas and dates the shoot to July 1997, when the set building started. Part of the ksar is now a simple hotel with a café.

Most Tataouine itineraries from Djerba stop here, and some include the small entry fee.

Ksar Medenine, Ksar Hadada and Sidi Driss make up a “Star Wars tour from Djerba”, and they are enough for a good day.

Disputed: Ksar Ouled Soltane

A fifteenth-century communal granary whose ghorfa cells stack four storeys around two courtyards, and one of the most photographed buildings in Tunisia. Operators, guidebooks and a great many articles describe it as a Mos Espa slave-quarters location.

The specialist record disagrees. Galaxy Tours, working from the shooting schedule, quotes the production’s location manager saying the crew never shot there, and places the slave-quarters street at Medenine. Lonely Planet and many tour listings still say it was used. We list it as disputed and probably not used. It is the finest surviving ksar in the south, and that alone is worth the detour. Go for the building.

Matmata beyond the hotel

Matmata’s troglodyte houses, dug down into the soft rock around open courtyards, explain why the production picked the area for Tatooine. A good Matmata trip includes Sidi Driss and a traditional cave home that is still lived in. The day trip to Matmata and its cave houses visits both for $67, rated 4.8 out of 5, but from only 32 reviews so far.

Chenini and Tataouine

Tataouine gave Tatooine its name, but no famous scene was shot in the town itself. Treat it as a regional base: the locations are spread through the country around it. Chenini, the hilltop Berber village west of the town, gave its name to one of Tatooine’s moons, but nothing was filmed there. It fits naturally into a Tataouine route anyway and gives the day more than film stops. The Tataouine, Chenini and Berber day tour takes in Chenini and Ksar Hadada for $57, rated 4.6 out of 5 from 307 reviews.

The western sites: overnight only

These are the postcard Tatooine locations, and they cluster around Tozeur and Nefta, roughly 300km west of Djerba by road. That puts them on a two- or three-day loop, not a day trip; the one-day vs two-day comparison helps you decide how long to go for.

Mos Espa. The standing set, with the domes, the moisture vaporators and Watto’s shop, is at Ong Jmal near Nefta, past Chott el Djerid. It was built for The Phantom Menace during the Tunisian shoot of July and August 1997 and was never dismantled. A study published in Geomorphology tracked a crescent-shaped dune moving towards the set. You need a 4x4 for the final stretch.

Ong Jemel. The camel-neck-shaped rock above the dunes, used for desert scenes in the prequels and for The English Patient. It makes a fine sunset viewpoint.

The Lars homestead exterior. The sunken dome that everyone pictures, where Luke watches the twin suns set, stands on Chott el Djerid itself. Matmata has the inside; the salt pan has the outside; the two are a full day’s driving apart and always were. After the dome crumbled, a fan-funded “Save the Lars Homestead” campaign paid for its repair in 2012. It’s free, and sunset is the time to go.

Sidi Bouhlel. The canyon near Tozeur, often called Star Wars Canyon, stood in for the rocky Tatooine wastes: the Jawas capture R2-D2 here and the Tusken Raiders attack Luke. It is also an Indiana Jones location. The canyon is unmarked, so go with a guide.

If you’re heading west in late December, you can pair the trip with the Douz Sahara Festival, scheduled for 23 to 26 December 2026.

Suggested itineraries

Pick one cluster per day.

Self-guided half day on Djerba

Sidi Jemour, the Amghar Mosque, then Ajim for the cantina building, the plaza and the checkpoint street. Allow three to four hours, and finish with grilled fish in Ajim.

The Tataouine route

Djerba → Ksar Medenine → Tataouine → Chenini → Ksar Hadada → Djerba. This is the prequel day: two confirmed slave-quarters sets, plus Ksar Ouled Soltane if your tour adds it.

The Matmata route

Djerba → Matmata → a troglodyte home → Hotel Sidi Driss → Tamezret → Djerba. This is the original-trilogy day, with the hilltop village of Tamezret a short drive west of Matmata. Many group tours add Ksar Ghilane’s hot spring; the Ksar Ghilane hot spring guide covers it.

Both in one day?

It is possible, but usually too rushed: you spend most of the day in the vehicle and see each site in a hurry. Two days are better.

A two-day Star Wars route

Day 1. Djerba → Medenine → Tataouine → Chenini → Ksar Hadada.

Day 2. Matmata → Sidi Driss → Tamezret → Djerba.

You can add Ksar Ghilane if you also want the Sahara, but that makes the itinerary busier. The Sahara 2-day 4x4 tour with a night at a desert camp takes that busier version at $48, rated 4.7 out of 5 from 542 reviews: Chenini and Ksar Ghilane on the first day, Matmata and Sidi Driss on the second, without the Tataouine ksour.

A three-day Tatooine loop

Day 1. Djerba → Matmata (Sidi Driss) → across Chott el Djerid → Tozeur. Day 2. Sidi Bouhlel in the morning, Mos Espa and Ong Jemel in the afternoon, the Lars igloo at sunset. Day 3. Douz or Ksar Ghilane → Ksar Hadada → Djerba.

Fit the island sites in on your arrival or departure day.

Which tour to book

Prices and ratings were checked on GetYourGuide in October 2026, per person unless stated.

Sidi Driss plus the oasis, the value pick. The Ksar Ghilane and Matmata 4x4 tour costs $69, rated 4.6 out of 5 from 342 reviews, and pairs the Ksar Ghilane dunes and hot spring with Matmata and Hotel Sidi Driss. The small-group 4x4 to Ksar Ghilane, Matmata and the set at $68 is better rated, 4.7 out of 5 from 162 reviews, and gives you longer at the oasis; the Star Wars tours page compares the two.

The most-reviewed desert day. The Ksar Ghilane and Tataouine 4x4 day costs $69, rated 4.8 out of 5 from 1,839 reviews, and its listing includes a stop at Ksar Hadada before three hours at the oasis.

Ksar Hadada with a sunset. The Star Wars and sunset day at $57 takes Ksar Hadada, Ouled Soltane, Guermassa and the salt lake, and finishes with sunset in the dunes, which suits country that was chosen for how it looks. Our breakdown has the timings.

Two film sites in a private vehicle. The Sahara Dream Tour in a private 4x4 costs $83 for 12 hours, rated 4.8 out of 5 from 29 reviews. It visits a Matmata cave village and Ksar Hadada, where lunch is served, then Ksar Ghilane at sunset. One reviewer reported seeing no Star Wars sites, so confirm the stops before you book.

The completist’s private day. The private Star Wars tour to Tataouine, Chenini and Matmata runs eleven hours: Ksar Ouled Soltane, Chenini, Ksar Hadada and Sidi Driss, with all three site entries included and a private vehicle. It costs $255 for a group of up to two, so about $128 each for a couple, roughly double a shared seat, for a day that reaches both confirmed mainland sets. It is rated 4.3 out of 5 from 59 reviews. Our breakdown lists the stops.

A specialist guide for a group. The Star Wars Matmata tour of the filming locations from GSA Voyages costs $516 for a private group of up to five, with a Star Wars specialist guide approved by the tourist office, lunch at Ksar Hadada and site entries included. It has only four reviews, all five stars, so you are trusting a small sample.

Mos Espa needs a night. The 2-day tour of Tozeur and the mountain oases costs $197, rated 4.9 out of 5 from 13 reviews, runs in a private jeep with a 4-star Tozeur hotel night, and includes Ong Jmal and the big Star Wars set. The 3-day Tunisian desert tour from $412 adds a desert camp, but it has no reviews yet and lists the afternoon at Ong Jmal and Mos Espa under what is not included, so ask before you pay.

No tour on GetYourGuide covers the three island sites; a taxi and a morning do the job.

Book a dedicated Star Wars tour if identifying the scenes matters to you; a general southern Tunisia tour is the better fit if Star Wars is one interest among several. You do not need a guide to enjoy the sites, but one helps you find the exact spots where scenes were shot. The best Sahara tours from Djerba ranks the wider desert options.

Which sites to put first

Original-trilogy fans: Hotel Sidi Driss, on the Matmata route, and Ajim on the island.

Prequel fans: the Tataouine and Medenine ksour, Ksar Hadada and Ksar Medenine.

Travelling with non-fans: Matmata and Ksar Ouled Soltane, which are worth the stop for the architecture alone.

Driving yourself

You can drive to the main sites in the south-east in a hire car, and the island sites are easy on your own. On the mainland you face long driving days, and nobody to point out where the scenes were filmed.

What to check before booking

Listings are not consistent about which sites they actually include. Before booking, look for the real site names, since a generic “Star Wars sites” label tells you little:

• Hotel Sidi Driss
• Ksar Hadada
• Ksar Medenine
• Ksar Ouled Soltane
• Matmata
• Chenini

If a tour only says “Star Wars locations,” ask which of these it covers before you pay for it. Also confirm hotel pickup, total duration, the guide’s language, whether lunch is included, and whether the vehicle is private or shared — the same trip can run to very different prices depending on those details.

Fan tips and etiquette

• Leave the drone at home. Bringing a drone into Tunisia needs prior authorisation, and customs hold unauthorised ones until you leave.
• Costumes: robes and lightsabers are welcome at Sidi Driss and Mos Espa. In Ajim’s residential streets and at the two mosques, stay low-key and never climb on or alter the buildings.
• Respect residents. People live in Matmata’s pit homes and in Ajim. Ask before photographing anyone, and expect to tip if a family shows you around.
• Tipping: give a few dinars to custodians and photo helpers; for a guide and driver on a full day, about 10 to 20 dinars is common. Turn down self-appointed guides at Sidi Driss politely and firmly.
• Bring screenshots. Most sites have changed, and matching frames is half the fun.
• Pack for the season. Desert evenings are cold from November to February; the winter desert packing list covers the layers.

What to bring

• Comfortable shoes for stairs and uneven ground at the ksour
• Water
• Sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses
• A phone or camera, and a power bank
• Cash for entry fees, drinks and tips (amounts in our desert tour costs guide)

When to go

Spring, autumn and winter are the easiest seasons for a Star Wars day. Summer can be very hot inland, especially around Tataouine and Matmata. The month-by-month guide has the detail.

One thing worth holding onto

Southern Tunisia looks like another planet on film because of its geology more than its sets: the granary architecture, the pit villages, the salt crust, the erg. Ksar Ouled Soltane would be extraordinary if no camera had ever pointed at it. The itineraries that treat the film stops as part of a landscape day tend to be the ones people rate highest, and that is visible in the numbers on the Star Wars tours page. If you are British, check where Ksar Ouled Soltane sits on the FCDO map first; our safety guide explains why it matters for insurance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I see Star Wars locations without leaving Djerba?

Yes. Ajim (Mos Eisley), the Amghar Mosque (Obi-Wan’s house) and Sidi Jemour (Tosche Station) are all on the island’s west coast. All three are free and fit into half a day.

Where is Ben Kenobi’s house on Djerba?

Production-record research by Galaxy Tours puts it at the Amghar Mosque on the outskirts of Ajim. Many websites and some tours say Sidi Jemour, which was used for Tosche Station.

Is the Mos Eisley cantina still there?

The building used for the exterior in Ajim still stands but is derelict. The interior was filmed in a studio in England.

Can you visit Hotel Sidi Driss from Djerba?

Yes, as a long day trip. Matmata is the more direct of the two clusters from the island, and most routes that go there include the hotel.

How much does Hotel Sidi Driss cost to visit?

Non-guests usually pay a small entry fee in dinars. Many tours include lunch there, which covers entry.

Is Ksar Hadada near Djerba?

At about 100 km, it is practical on a Tataouine day route, along with Ksar Medenine and, on some itineraries, Ksar Ouled Soltane.

Was Ksar Ouled Soltane really in Star Wars?

Probably not. Research based on the Phantom Menace shooting schedule points to Ksar Hadada and Ksar Medenine instead, though many listings still credit it. Ouled Soltane is still well worth seeing.

Can you visit Mos Espa from Djerba?

Not sensibly as a day trip. It sits roughly 300km west near Nefta, past Chott el Djerid, and the Lars igloo is out there too. Book a two- or three-day tour with a night in Tozeur.

Which Star Wars location is best from Djerba?

Hotel Sidi Driss is the most recognisable original-trilogy stop. The Tataouine cluster — Ksar Hadada, Ksar Medenine and, on the fullest itineraries, Ksar Ouled Soltane — is the better pick if you want several locations in one day.

Which day trip is best for Star Wars fans?

For value, a Matmata day that stops at Sidi Driss. For completeness, a private Star Wars day that covers Sidi Driss and Ksar Hadada with entries included.

Can you see them all in one day?

You can see the Tataouine and Medenine sites in one day. Adding Matmata makes the day much longer, so split the two clusters over two days if you can.

Is Mos Espa near Djerba?

No. It is near Nefta in western Tunisia, about 300km from the island.

Can I fly a drone at the sets?

Not without prior authorisation, which tourists rarely get; customs hold unauthorised drones on arrival.

Ready to find Tatooine?

Start with a free morning on Djerba’s west coast. For one mainland day, choose either Matmata or the Tataouine cluster; for two days, combine them. Save Mos Espa, Ong Jmal, the Lars igloo and Sidi Bouhlel for a separate loop to Tozeur, and check your tour’s named stops before you book.