Matmata

Geography

The Matmata mountains which dominate the vast plain of Djeffara are located south-east of Chott El-Jerid, in the foothills of Djebel Dahar, they constitute a cuesta (515 meters) cleared in the limestone rocks and marls of the Upper Cretaceous and middle by various wadis. The village is forty kilometers south-west of Gabès. Clinging to the mountainside, 600 meters above sea level, our charming village had 2,116 inhabitants in 2004. It is renowned for its remarkable troglodyte dwellings which make it one of the high places of Tunisian tourism.

History

It was during the Allied bombings of the city of Gabes then in Nazi hands, that several Gabesian families fled their city to take refuge in the troglodyte houses of Matmata.

Matmata was also the stronghold of the fellagas who took up arms against the French protectorate under the leadership of Mohamed Daghbaji, several of his companions being from the city of Matmata.

Just after independence was proclaimed in 1956, the government tried to dislodge the mountain populations towards new towns settled on the Aradh plateau (New Matmata and New Zrawa) but the majority of the population preferred to keep their homes near their homes. gardens perched in the mountains.

Architecture and Tourism

The troglodyte dwellings

It is in the sides of the mountain around a vast usually circular well, that these dwellings are dug. Around this well constituting the courtyard of the dwelling are dug longitudinally and in floors the rooms which will be used for the lower floor of rooms (camour), kitchen (matbakh), sheepfold for the goats and stables, the upper floor being reserved for the storage (makhzen) of dates, dried figs, cereals and olives.

In this region subject to very strong heat waves, several months a year, this particular arrangement of the habitat allows light to penetrate into the underground rooms while keeping them cool in the hottest of summer. Although the interior temperature of these dwellings is not constant throughout the year, as in a cave, the thermal amplitudes between winter and summer are quite small: about fifteen degrees in January and 23 to 25 degrees in July-August. From the natural level of the exterior ground, one generally descends into the courtyard directly by means of a narrow staircase arranged on the side of the wall or possibly a ladder leaning against the latter.

You can also enter the courtyard by a horizontal underground corridor which begins a little downstream in the side of the mountain (because the majority of these houses are built on sloping ground). Some houses are quite elaborate with a succession of inner courtyards which are accessed by underground corridors starting from the dwellings or the main courtyard, two levels of superimposed rooms, a gently sloping access tunnel starting from the upper edge of the well , etc.

The Sidi Driss hotel

The Sidi Idriss hotel serves as the setting for Star Wars by George Lucas; This is the Lars family residence where Luke Skywalker, Beru and Owen Lars live. This type of construction already existed 3000 years ago: the Phoenicians, who landed around 1200 BC. AD adopted it and the Romans in turn took up this design to build summer apartments in their cities. In France, there is a very similar type of troglodyte habitat in the region of Doué-la-Fontaine where the “residing caves” of generally rectangular shape – this is what these underground dwellings are called – are dug into the walls quarries of falun (variety of freestone) in the open.