Star Wars Fans Can Visit the Real Mos Eisley

When George Lucas was searching for the perfect otherworldly landscape to bring Tatooine to life in 1976, he found it in the sun-baked deserts of Tunisia. The fictional spaceport of Mos Eisley—home to that infamous cantina where Han Solo shot first—was filmed in and around the real town of Ajim on the island of Djerba.

And here's the thing: people still live there.

A Town That Became a Galaxy

Unlike purpose-built movie sets that get torn down after filming, Lucas chose existing Tunisian architecture because it already looked alien. The whitewashed buildings, distinctive domed roofs, and narrow streets of Ajim required minimal modification to transform into a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The most famous location is the Cantina exterior—a real building on Ajim's main street that served as the entrance where Luke and Obi-Wan first encountered the seedy underworld of the galaxy. Today, it's a modest structure in an otherwise ordinary neighborhood, with locals going about their daily lives just meters from where cinematic history was made.

Living in Movie History

For the residents of Ajim, the Star Wars connection is simply part of their hometown's identity. Children play in streets that doubled as Tatooine's dusty thoroughfares. Families live in homes that appeared in background shots watched by billions.

The town sees a steady stream of devoted fans making the pilgrimage each year. They pose for photos outside the cantina, wander streets their heroes once walked (or rather, where actors walked while pretending to be their heroes), and experience the surreal collision of mundane reality and beloved fiction.

Tunisia's Star Wars Trail

Ajim is just one stop on Tunisia's unofficial Star Wars tourism circuit:

• Matmata — The underground Hotel Sidi Driss served as Luke's childhood home
• Tataouine — The town that literally gave Tatooine its name
• Ong Jmel — Where the Mos Espa podracing scenes were filmed
• Chott el Djerid — The salt flat where Luke watched the binary sunset

Some locations, like the Mos Espa set built for the prequels, were purpose-built and are gradually being reclaimed by the Sahara. But Ajim endures because it was never really a set at all—just a town that happened to look like another planet.

The Magic of Practical Locations

There's something poetic about the fact that one of cinema's most iconic fictional places is actually someone's real home. While modern blockbusters create entire worlds with CGI, the original Star Wars achieved its lived-in aesthetic by filming in places that were genuinely lived-in.

The locals of Ajim didn't need to imagine what a bustling spaceport might look like. They just went about their lives while cameras rolled, and in doing so, helped create one of the most memorable settings in film history.

So yes—people really do live in Mos Eisley. They just call it home.