Abandoned Star Wars set in Tunisia

An entire village, twenty structures, placed in the middle of the Tunisian desert. No one has ever returned to dismantle it. For nearly three decades, sand has patiently gnawed at this cinematic scenery, threatening to completely engulf it.

Mos Espa set built for The Phantom Menace

The Mos Espa set, built in 1997 for The Phantom Menace in Ong Jemel, was abandoned after filming without ever being dismantled. A barkhane progressing at approximately 15 meters per year threatens to bury the site, as was the case for a set from the first Star Wars in 2003.

Desert landscape and its extraterrestrial look

Imagine crossing the dunes of southern Tunisia, far from any frequented roads, and coming face to face with strange-shaped houses, ochre domes, and rusted metal structures planted in the middle of nowhere. No tourists, no filming crew, no living soul. Just the wind, the sand, and that particular silence of abandoned places.

Location and its unique features

At Ong Jemel, near Nefta in Tunisia, the twenty constructions of the Mos Espa set built in 1997 for The Phantom Menace have never been dismantled. The location is on the edge of the Chott el-Gharsa, in an area called the Eriguet dunes. Barkhane dunes, saturated with salt, give the landscape distinctly extraterrestrial appearances.

Mos Espa and its connection to Star Wars

For those who grew up with the Star Wars saga, the name Mos Espa immediately evokes the city of Anakin Skywalker, this young slave who later became the formidable Darth Vader. It was precisely at Ong Jemel that this fictional city took shape in 1997, during the filming of The Phantom Menace, the first episode of the prequel trilogy signed by George Lucas.

Construction and abandonment of the set

The production teams had then built a real village, with its typical houses, its fake moisture vaporators, and structures evoking a slave market on a desert planet. Twenty buildings in total, carefully built to give the illusion of a civilization established for generations. Once filming was completed, logic would suggest that everything should be dismantled, as is the usual practice on most film sets. Except that here, none of this happened.

Threat from moving dunes

What could have remained a simple tourist curiosity has, over time, become a genuine subject of scientific study. In 2013, Ralph Lorenz, a researcher at the applied physics laboratory of Johns-Hopkins University, published an article for the Planetary Society that drew attention to a worrying phenomenon: a barkhane, otherwise known as a moving crescent of sand, literally threatens to bury the set.

Scientific study of the dune's movement

A study published in the journal Geomorphology, conducted jointly by researchers from Johns-Hopkins, Brigham Young University, and the University of Sousse, allowed for the precise quantification of this threat. By comparing satellite images taken at different times, the team calculated that the dune was advancing at approximately 15 meters per year.

Previous example of dune burial

According to Lorenz's calculations, left to itself, the dune would have crossed the set within the six years following the publication of his article. A scenario far from theoretical, since a precedent already exists not far away: another set, used for the first Star Wars, A New Hope, released in 1977, was completely buried under a dune in 2003.

Preservation efforts and results

Faced with this finding, the Tunisian authorities finally reacted. In April 2014, the Ministry of Tourism launched the Save Mos Espa campaign, in partnership with several organizations. The stated goal was to raise 300,000 Tunisian dinars, or approximately 137,000 euros, to fund the restoration of the site.

Efforts to clear the sand

The Tunisian state allocated 160,000 dinars to this rescue project. Nabil Gasmi, involved in this campaign, gave a straightforward assessment. He explained that the region, particularly windy, saw its dunes move approximately 15 meters per year, and that a dune had already buried 10% of the site. The teams mobilized nevertheless managed to remove 8,000 cubic meters of sand in only 12 days.

Set damage and ongoing challenges

Gasmi also specified that part of the set had already collapsed under the pressure of the elements. What makes this story particularly fascinating from the point of view of a science enthusiast is the improbable intersection between cinematic fiction and desert geomorphology. A set intended to represent a distant and hostile planet ends up, unfortunately, facing the real laws of aeolian dynamics.

Mos Espa's current state

Today, Mos Espa continues to exist, caught between heritage preservation and natural erosion. A rather dizzying reminder that even the most marked imaginary universes remain, at bottom, subject to the physical forces that shape our own planet.