SW RECCE SITE FOUND: KSAR OULED DEBBAB

5 March 2021

Expanding the groundbreaking effort to identify all Star Wars franchise scouted sites in Tunisia, Galaxy Tours CEO (Davin Anderson) in close cooperation with Tataouine-based freelance photographer Mohamed Ghdiri discovered on 5 March 2021 a “lost” Star Wars scouted site in the Tunisian Tataouine region. The search to identify Ksar Ouled Debbab as a franchise recce site spanned more than 12 months.

Site: Ksar Ouled Debbab
GPS: 32.869731, 10.381757
Location: Tataouine Governorate (southeast Tunisia)
Description: Amazigh fortified granary (mid-18th century CE)
Potential Star Wars set concept: Mos Eisley slums | street

The recce photographs that led to this discovery were taken by John Barry (production designer) during the mid-November 1975 Star Wars location scout in Tunisia. The primary focus area in Barry’s five photos is the northwest courtyard/northeast wall at Ksar Ouled Debbab. Major renovations to transform the site into a hotel started in 2004. Visual comparisons with pre-2004 photos reveal key structural similarities, in particular remnants of a stand-alone small-scale wall extending into the courtyard, to verify the location as the same captured in Barry’s photos.

The post-renovation architecture renders the Ksar Ouled Debbab recce photos only faintly recognizable.