Ksar Ouled Debbab
OVERVIEW
Site: Ksar Ouled Debbab
GPS: 32.869731, 10.381757
Location: Ksar Ouled Debbab village, Tataouine Governorate (southeast Tunisia)
Description: Amazigh fortified granary (mid-18th century CE)
Star Wars recce:
Episode IV – Tunisia (November 1975)
Source: Original recce photographs & recce sketch
Star Wars scouted set concept:
Mos Eisley | slums street
Star Wars connection discovery & follow-up:
Galaxy Tours (5 March 2021 & 29 May 2022)
More Mos Eisley (almost): For roughly a six-week period (mid-November 1975 to early January 1976), Ksar Ouled Debbab was locked in as a second fictional Mos Eisley location in Tunisia (paired with Ajim). Due to budget constraints and logistical hurdles associated with filming at a site located so far south in the Tataouine region, the Mos Eisley slums street scene envisioned for Ksar Ouled Debbab was replaced in the fourth draft (1 January 1976) with scene 48 [Ben: “These are not the droids you’re looking for”] to be shot in Ajim. Gary Kurtz (producer) confirmed in a department heads meeting on 23 January 1976 that this script change was final, eliminating the scene in which Luke stops his landspeeder to ask a group of “Jawas gathered around a solar heater” directions to the cantina. The decision to remove Ksar Ouled Debbab from the shooting schedule came just two months before production began in Tunisia on 22 March 1976.
Accessibility: Very easy; foothills terrain; paved roads; spacious parking area (32.869657, 10.381198) directly at the site entrance.
LOCATION
Ksar Ouled Debbab (alternately: Dabbab) is a small Amazigh village situated in the southern foothills of the Jebel Dahar mountain range approximately 9 km southwest of Tataouine city via the P19 highway in the Tataouine Governorate. The modern village shares the name of the ancient ksar, which forms the southern perimeter of the village. Approximately 4 km away, the weathered peaks of Jebel Bou Louha (elevation: 648 meters), the tallest mountain range in the Tataouine region, dominate the skyline to the northwest.
SITE
Ksar Ouled Debbab is the largest ksar founded by the Amazigh Ouled Debbab tribe, which settled in the region in the early 18th century CE. The original (northwest) courtyard, formed like an irregular amphitheater (70 x 65 meters), dates to approximately 1760. The ksar, associated with at least six different Ouled Debbab clans, was later extended some 230 meters to the southeast in the shape of an elongated, increasingly narrow second courtyard with a single exterior entrance placed at the southeast corner of the site. The size of this architectural expansion denotes periods of significant local economic development and population growth requiring a substantial number of ghorfas (about 400 in total stacked no more than two stories high) for the storage of grain and other food staples. A unique grouping of ghorfas built in the center of the original courtyard was also added at a later date, dividing the space into an open northern area connected to a narrow southern row.
The ksar complex has a relatively long history as a tourism attraction linked to intermittent business investment initiatives by various managing groups dating back to the 1960s. The first documented commercial venture to offer lodging accommodations at the site, named “Ghorfa Hotel,” was in operation prior to 1980. Attempts to attract consistent clientele proved to be unsuccessful, forcing all business operations to close in the late 1990s.
Commercial investment was revived in 2004, this time more professional and diverse in nature, offering a museum, café, restaurant, retail shop, and hotel. New ksar-inspired hotel room ghorfas coupled with extravagant decor, largely incongruent with the traditional design of the heritage site, controversially replaced the dilapidated granary architecture of the original courtyard. In addition, crews separated the two courtyards of the ksar complex by building a ghorfa-like wall (with an access door) on each side of the ghorfa cluster in the center of the original courtyard. A third wall was erected in the second (southeast) courtyard to isolate its most narrow section (ca. 150 meters long) along with the ksar’s original exterior entrance from the rest of the complex. These changes were amplified by the construction of an adjoining contemporary entrance area northwest of the ksar exterior filled with an oversized eagle monument embedded in a waterfall, statues of dinosaurs and dromedary camels, and plow and amphora displays.
The Cherait Group, which acquired authorities in 2011 to conduct business operations at Ksar Ouled Debbab, serves as the current management group over the site, focusing on luxury hotel accommodations, a high-quality restaurant (with interactive events), and a regional/Islamic art museum. The entirety of the second courtyard remains unrenovated and presently functions as a dumping ground for assorted paraphernalia.
IDENTIFICATION
In his monumental work The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film (2007), J.W. Rinzler published negatives (Kodak Tri-X panchromatic film) of various location scout photos taken by John Barry (production designer) during the principal Episode IV pre-production recce to Tunisia in mid-November 1975. No names or clear identifications were provided for any of the negatives. Multi-faceted research confirms that five recce photos combine to depict the northeast wall and north corner of the Ksar Ouled Debbab original courtyard. Comparisons with pre-2004 photos taken prior to the major structural renovations of the original courtyard proved to be critical in the process of verifying this location. The post-renovation architecture renders the Ksar Ouled Debbab recce photos only faintly recognizable.
An original concept sketch drawn by Barry during or shortly after the mid-November 1975 location scout provides additional evidence to identify Ksar Ouled Debbab as a recce site. The sketch depicts ghorfas on both sides of the divided original courtyard as viewed from a vantage point approximately 40 meters to the southeast in the second courtyard. A distinctive archway on the southwest side of the second courtyard and distant outline of the Jebel Bou Louha mountains overlooking Ksar Ouled Debbab village are also depicted. Five groups of Jawas and a moisture vaporator cluster represent the fictional elements in the sketch.
Barry’s sketch confusingly labels the recce illustration as: “Adjim Djerba. Foume Tatahouine. Ghorfa Hotel.” This conflated combination of seemingly unrelated terms left the location of this ksar sketch unidentified for decades. “Ghorfa Hotel” is a reference to the 1970s business previously in operation at Ksar Ouled Debbab. “Foume Tatahouine” (Arabic: “mouth of the water springs”) is the antiquated name formerly used for nearby Tataouine city, which, as the only major city in the vicinity of Ksar Ouled Debbab, likely served as the base location to explore the Tataouine region during the location scout. Barry seemingly was not familiar with the actual name of the ksar, prompting artistic license to extend the “Foume Tatahouine” title to Ksar Ouled Debbab. The reference to “Adjim Djerba” thematically links the Mos Eisley Cantina location in Ajim to the illustrated site, which, according to the initial pre-production “Tunisian Location Schedule” (27 November 1975) listing for “Hotel Ghorfa, Foum Tathouine,” was slated to function as the Mos Eisley slum dwellings exterior for a scene—first introduced in the second draft (28 January 1975)—in which Luke stops his landspeeder to ask a group of Jawas directions to the cantina. Explained in this manner, Barry’s caption aligns with Galaxy Tours field work in 2022 to confirm Ksar Ouled Debbab as the site visually presented in the sketch.
For roughly a six-week period (mid-November 1975 to early January 1976), Ksar Ouled Debbab was locked in as a second fictional Mos Eisley location in Tunisia (paired with Ajim). Due to budget constraints and logistical hurdles associated with filming at a site located so far south in the Tataouine region, the Mos Eisley slums street scene envisioned for Ksar Ouled Debbab (stemming from the location scout) was replaced in the fourth draft (1 January 1976) with scene 48 [Ben: “These are not the droids you’re looking for”] to be shot in Ajim. Gary Kurtz (producer) confirmed in a department heads meeting on 23 January 1976 that this script change was final, eliminating the scene of the “landspeeder approaching the town with the Jawas gathered around a solar heater” intended to be filmed at “Foum Tataouine” from the screenplay. This decision to remove Ksar Ouled Debbab from the shooting schedule came just two months before production began in Tunisia on 22 March 1976.
