Gouvernorat de Gabes Favorites

Matmata Landscape

by barryg23

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Matmata Landscape
by barryg23
How it was in 1976
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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

about chenini

by call_me_rhia

Imagine brown ochre valleys, imagine nothing grows there, and imagine no people around. This is the Chenini area. Imagine you can't see where the mountain finishes and where the village starts, because they are of the same shade. They are a bit like two organisms in symbiosis: one can't exist without the other. This is Chenini too. It's the contrast between the old berber village, built in ochre bricks right on the slope of the barren ochre mountain, and the little white (recently built) mosque right by the side of the village: it really stands out!.

about matmata

by call_me_rhia

Matmata is both a village and an area. What's special about this area is the barren moonlike rocky landscape in which people have built, or better cut, their houses. These houses are also known as Troglodyte Houses and are cut below ground level - usually 5 to 10 meters deep and accessible through a tunnel or a ladder. The reason for this was protection both against the heat and the invaders. Here too some scenes of George Lukas' Star Wars were filmed. A simple memory, star wars related: I decided to go for a walk in the area, and I think I ended up walking in circles, anyway. Soon I really felt on Tatooine, and I found myself looking around in expectation, hoping to see Luke Skywalker come out of nowhere. Some places play strange tricks on one's sanity.

about gabes

by call_me_rhia

Gabes is a non-descritpive industrial (and ugly) Tunisia town - charm surely doesn't live here - nor it ever dropped by. However a short visit isn't a total waste of time: the market is wonderful I was looking for a packet of cigarettes and I had to bargain for it too. While bargaining/chatting the young owner of the shop asked where I was from - then he said (surprise!) he had a friend in Switzerland - maybe I knew him (yeah, right,sure). next he produces a postcard sent by such friend... i look at it.. and ouch... it's of a village near mine. I look at the signature: my high-school mate! Needless to say, those cigarettes came for free