SW RECCE SITE FOUND: MIDÈS (RUINS)

22 November 2020

As the first success in the groundbreaking effort to identify all Star Wars franchise scouted sites in Tunisia, Galaxy Tours CEO (Davin Anderson) discovered on 22 November 2020 a “lost” Star Wars scouted site in the Tozeur region. The search to identify ancient Midés as a franchise recce site spanned more than 9 months.

Site: Ancient Midès
GPS: 34.406692, 7.920470
Location: Tozeur Governorate (southwest Tunisia)
Description: Ruins (pre-Roman era)
Star Wars scouted set concept: Mos Espa spaceport (various elements)

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. The caption for one of the recce photos in the article (page 56; top row, right-hand side) reads: “High above a chasm, this eerie abandoned city still keeps watch over the remote mountain passes near Algeria.” Prompted by this locational context, Davin matched online images of ancient Midès (located just 1 km from the Algerian border) to this specific recce photo. Following the removal of COVID-19 travel restrictions, Davin later confirmed in-person that Reynolds stood approximately 45 meters southeast of the ruins on the sloping bank directly below the prominent southern wall of the site to frame the recce photo.

Despite no enduring effort to preserve the site, the Midès ruins visible in Reynolds’ recce photo remain more or less unchanged since 1995.