Midès

OVERVIEW

Site: Ancient Midès

Location: Tozeur Governorate / Southwest Tunisia

GPS: 34.406692, 7.920470

Description: Ruins (pre-Roman era)

Star Wars recce: Episode I – Tunisia (1995)

Source: Original recce photo

Potential Star Wars set concepts:
Mos Espa | marketplace
Mos Espa | podrace circuit
Mos Espa | slave quarters backyards
Mos Espa | slave quarters street

Accessibility: Very easy; highland terrain; paved roads; parking area (34.407054, 7.920464) directly at the site; optional low-impact hike along the ridge beneath the sheer rock face south of the ruins.

LOCATION

Modern Midès is a sparsely populated mountain oasis village located in the Tozeur Governorate less than 1 km from the Algerian border to the north and 3 km from Tamerza (alternately: Tamaghza), an important regional tourism center, across the Horchane wadi to the south. The modern village, easily accessible via R201 from the P16/C201 junction, was established in the aftermath of intense flooding in 1969 caused by 22 days of torrential rainfall throughout southern Tunisia. The catastrophic weather event, which reportedly killed more than 500 people, overflowed wadis in the region, forcing extensive property damage. Many settlements were left abandoned, to include ancient Midès. A concentration of plain-clothes police officers patrol the area to thwart any nefarious actors seeking to cross into Tunisia from Algeria.

SITE

Ancient Midès (identified as Madés by the Romans)—strategically situated about 1 km southwest of the modern village between a dense date palm grove and a steep ravine drop-off (50-60 meters high)—functioned as an Amazigh stronghold in the mountains of the arid Djerid region. Remnants of narrow streets and mudbrick structures are on display among the ancient ruins. The most impressive feature at the site is the impassable cliffside south wall: a row of fortified structures clinging to the sheer rock face of the ravine for a span of some 300 meters. The narrow ravine below, populated with unique natural monuments, contrasting colors, and dynamic shapes sculpted out of rock by river torrents of former ages, stretches for 3 km around the village as a natural defensive barrier.

IDENTIFICATION

Jon Bradley Snyder (author/editor) reported on the principal Episode I recce to Tunisia (early to mid-December 1995) in Star Wars Insider 29 (Spring 1996). In his article (“On-Location: Tatooine”) Snyder published photos (taken by David West Reynolds) with generic captions for several of the Tunisian sites visited during the recce. No names or clear identifications were provided for any of the visually documented sites. Multi-faceted research confirms that one of the recce photos in the article (page 56; top row, right-hand side) displays a wide shot capturing the majority of the ancient Midès cliffside south wall. Reynolds took the recce photo from a vantage point approximately 45 meters southeast of the ruins along the edge of the sloping bank directly next to the ravine. The caption associated with the photo reads: “High above a chasm, this eerie abandoned city still keeps watch over the remote mountain passes near Algeria.” Snyder added that the team “surveyed many long-abandoned cities” in the “mountains near Algeria.” Despite no enduring effort to preserve the ruins, views of the cliffside south wall at the site remain more or less unchanged since the 1995 recce.