Anyone who visits Tunisia and doesn't take the opportunity to visit matmata will miss seeing a type of architecture which is unique - cave dwellers. Matamta made up of several villages , takes its name from the Berber tribes who have taken refuge in this isolated area. The Berbers who are nowadays influenced by Arab cultures, still live in villages carved out of the mountainside. Others hide away in the underground dwellings or rifts in the valley. The villages are inhabited by hard working people. An unsuspecting eye would look at the village and only see the craters which hide the houses and create the a lunar landscape. these invisible villages are made up of several cave dwellings hidden in the ground, which resembles a lunar landscape riddled with giant holes. In fact , every crater is a house.

Matmata is now a famous place -  George Lucas arrived here with a film crew to make the opening shots of his Star Wars film.  Matmata, about 40km South of Gabes, has a few of these homes still "standing" and occupied. One is now a hotel.
This is the kitchen of one of the dwellings. The layout is that all the rooms face onto a  central courtyard called a Housh. They are amazingly cool,  a constant 17 degrees Celsius