SW RECCE SITE FOUND: KSAR OULED ABDALLAH

9 December 2020

Continuing the groundbreaking effort to identify all Star Wars franchise scouted sites in Tunisia, Galaxy Tours CEO (Davin Anderson) discovered on 9 December 2020 a “lost” Star Wars scouted site in the Médenine region. The search to identify Ksar Ouled Abdallah as a franchise recce site spanned more than 9 months.

Site: Ksar Ouled Abdallah
GPS: 33.368891, 10.436985
Location: Metameur, Médenine Governorate (southeast Tunisia)
Description: Amazigh fortified granary (18th century CE)
Star Wars scouted set concept: Mos Espa | slave quarters

In his Star Wars Insider 29 (Spring 1996) article (“On-Location: Tatooine”) detailing the principal Episode I recce to Tunisia (early to mid-December 1995), Bradley Snyder (author/editor) published photographs (taken by David West Reynolds) of several Tunisian sites visited during the location scout. No names or clear identifications were provided for any of the visually documented sites. Surveying online images of historic ksour in southeastern Tunisia, Davin paired specific photos of Ksar Ouled Abdallah to one of Reynolds’ recce photos featured in the article (page 56; center row, left-hand side), displaying the ksar’s distinct northwest wall with the uniquely shaped wide-entrance ghorfa in the center of the top row. Following the removal of COVID-19 travel restrictions, Davin later confirmed in-person that Reynolds stood north of center in the ksar’s courtyard just east of the lone tree at the site to frame the recce photo.

Despite the lack of any real effort to preserve the site, the Ksar Ouled Abdallah architecture visible in Reynolds’ recce photo remains instantly recognizable.