Thirst in da desert Photo

Photographer’s Note

Matmata (450km south of Tunis and 43km south of Gabes) is the Tunisian village, named after the Berber tribe that inhabits the region is the largest of the troglodyte communities. Matmata's fame comes from the unusual houses – instead of building the houses, they were dug vertically into the ground. The Berber people first dug homes out of the ground over 1000 years ago in order to escape the midday heat. These Troglodyte communities formed craters beneath the earth and constructed tunnels between some of the courtyards to build an underground labyrinth.

Matmata is the place to stay the night and here's one of the incongruous combination - the pool right in the middle of the desert...

mitternacht, danbachmann has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mitternacht (1836) 2004-05-28 8:05

This isn't the same hotel, but one of my best memories from Matmata is lying by the pool after several days in the desert.

I really like this picture, you have a perspective that shows the oddity of the pool, it looks really strange together with the arid landscape. It would have been even stranger had there been people in the picture.