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| Aerial View of Ksar Ouled Soltane |
The Slave Quarter 2
Recently added to holly list of the Star Wars sites in Tunisia, "Ksar Ouled Soltane" was used during the summer 1998 as a setting for the filming of The Phantom Menace (see definition of a Tunisian Ksar in the Slave Quarter 1 section). Since Ouled Soltane resembles to the Ksar in Tataouine used for the Slave Quarter scenes of Ep. 1 in August 97, it was filmed to add a few other shoots of the Slave Quarter.
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| Aerial View of Ksar Ouled Soltane |
As a matter of fact, Ksar Ouled Soltane is considered the most beautiful of the Ksour (plural of Ksar) in Tunisia; a statement which is plainly justified. The building was restored in 1997, with the same raw materials that were used to create it many centuries ago (wood, sheet line and a kind of mortar).
Walking around inside the main court of the Ksar is breathtaking. These strange walls and countless windows are imbued with the spirit of a past civilisation. Again, the production crew recreated it well. The use of an authentic berber archeological site as the setting of a futurist tribe is clever. It is easy to imagine the building being decorated with Tatooine style doors, moisture vaporators and droids.
The site of this ksar is located 20 km south from the town of Tataouine (definitely a source of inspiration, see the map). This archeological marvel is being renovated for tourism purposes and an excellent road and series of signs make it very easy to find.
A comparaison, film/reality, will be made in this page as soon as I get some pics of the scenes in The Phantom Menace.
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| Entrance of Ksar Ouled Soltane |
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| Other end |
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| Left side |
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| Right side |
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| Exterior view |