World Art Utopia

Hotel Sidi Driss (Lars Homestead Interior) — Matmata

The whitewashed underground courtyard of Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata, Tunisia, with rounded doorways and a small outside staircase cut into the sandstone walls.
Artwork FileMatmata, Tunisia

Hotel Sidi Driss (Lars Homestead Interior)

StandingMar 2026

Star Wars production, in a Berber pit dwelling · filmed 1976 · Hotel Sidi Driss, Matmata

Photo: Neil Rickards / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0), taken 27 November 2003, as published in Street Art Utopia; full photo.

Hotel Sidi Driss is an underground Berber hotel in Matmata, southern Tunisia, whose largest pit was dressed as the interior of Luke Skywalker’s Lars homestead in Star Wars. According to Galaxy Tours, scenes were filmed there on 1 April 1976, and the crew came back on 11 September 2000 for Attack of the Clones. The hotel still takes guests. Source Source Source Reported

Standing Mar 2026: a Wikimedia Commons photo taken on 22 March 2026 shows the hotel courtyard with Star Wars set pieces in place. Source Checked

More photos

Grey Star Wars set pieces, including a tall moisture vaporator, standing in a yellow-walled courtyard of Hotel Sidi Driss in March 2022
2022 Set pieces left in a courtyardPhoto: Habib M’henni / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Two weathered Star Wars set pieces and a palm tree in a whitewashed courtyard of Hotel Sidi Driss in March 2026, with a visitor seen from behind
2026 Courtyard with set pieces and a palmPhoto: TOUMOU / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

💡 4 things to know

  1. Five pits, one famousThe hotel is five pits linked by tunnels. Most are about 20 ft across, but the one used as the Lars homestead is the largest, about 60 ft wide. Source Reported
  2. Two shoots, 24 years apartGalaxy Tours lists filming on 1 April 1976 for A New Hope and on 11 September 2000 for Attack of the Clones, released in 2002. Source Reported
  3. Set pieces left behindIn 2009 The National found ageing set dressings in the right courtyard: portals, machinery, piping and plywood panels with fans' messages on the back. Source Reported
  4. Still a working hotelAP reported in 2018 that the dwelling became a hotel in 1969, and that Star Wars fans keep it in business after visitor numbers fell. Source Reported

📍 Where it is

Hotel Sidi Driss, Matmata, Gabès Governorate, southern Tunisia Source Source Checked

Open in Maps

Opens a map at Hotel Sidi Driss in Matmata. The Lars homestead interior is in its largest pit; the exterior was filmed on the Chott el Djerid.

🗓️ Sightings

  1. 19761 Apr

    Lars homestead scenes filmed for Star Wars · Galaxy Tours

  2. 200011 Sep

    Attack of the Clones scenes filmed in the same pit · Galaxy Tours

  3. 200614 Dec

    Underground courtyard photographed by Drew Hess

  4. 200914 Feb

    Ageing set dressings seen in the right courtyard · The National

  5. 20185 Nov

    AP: Star Wars fans keep the hotel in business

  6. 202225 Mar

    Hotel photographed by Habib M'henni

  7. 202622 Mar

    Hotel photographed for Wikimedia Commons

Green stamps mark dated photographs (the date given on the photo’s page); amber stamps mark records, events and reports. Publication dates are not photo dates.

🗞️ In the sources

The National14 February 2009

Star Wars nostalgia in southern Tunisia

“Fans have scrawled messages on the backs of the wood pieces.”

Read the source →

Slate (Atlas Obscura)27 June 2014

Sleep in Luke Skywalker's Childhood Home

“a traditional troglodyte cave dwelling that was used as the Lars Homestead in Star Wars: A New Hope as well as Attack of the Clones”

Read the source →

Gulf News (AP)5 November 2018

Revisiting Tunisia’s ‘Star Wars’ desert

“Still, Star Wars fans keep the hotel in business.”

Read the source →

GoNOMAD Travel27 December 2015

Famous Star Wars Slumbers: Sidi Driss Hotel

“the Hotel Sidi Driss was no touristy Universal Studios re-creation; it was the real thing”

Read the source →

✅ The facts

Film
Star Wars (A New Hope): Lars homestead interior Source Checked
First filming day
1 April 1976 Source Reported
Second film
Attack of the Clones, filmed 11 September 2000 Source Reported
Layout
5 pits linked by tunnels Source Checked
Size of the Lars pit
About 60 ft wide, the largest of the five Source Reported
Exterior scenes
Filmed elsewhere, on the flat Chott el-Jerid Source Reported
Became a hotel
1969 according to AP; Galaxy Tours says it was founded in 1968 but cites no source. We lean to AP, a dated news report Source Source Conflicting
Leftover set pieces
Ageing set dressings in the right courtyard (2009) Source Reported

🔗 Related

All sources & image credits

Last checked: 11 November 2026 · How we verify art