45km/28mi south of Gabès is Matmata, the best known and most visited troglodytic village in Tunisia. It is reached on MC 107, which runs via Matmata Nouvelle to the site of the underground dwellings. The little town (pop. 3,000) lies on the eastern slopes of the Dahar uplands at a height of 650m/2,130ft. Matmata Nouvelle, founded only in the 1960s, is now the center of the region, with shops, a school, a post office and a petrol station. 15km/9mi beyond Matmata Nouvelle is the cratered landscape of the old troglodytic village, most of which is now uninhabited.
The inhabitants of the village sought shelter from the sun by constructing their curious underground cave dwellings. They first excavated a circular pit some 12m/40ft in diameter and between 6 and 12m (20 and 40ft) deep, round which living quarters (usually two-storied), store-rooms, granaries and stalls for animals were hewn from the rock. In this central courtyard, which was entered through a sloping tunnel and was used in common by the members of the extended family, was the oven (tabouna) for baking bread. Some of these underground dwellings have been converted into simple hotels; others now house small museums. The population live by agriculture. Rainwater is collected in ponds formed by the damming of depressions in the ground and distributed in small channels to the surrounding plantations of olives, dates, figs and corn. There is a good general view of the area from the hill to the west.
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Matmata, Gabes
