Tunisia · 17th century
Ksar Ouled Soltane (Arabic: قصر أولاد سلطان) is a fortified granary, or ksar, located in the Tataouine district in southern Tunisia. The ksar is spread out over two courtyards, each of which has a perimeter of multi-story vaulted granary cellars, or ghorfas. Like other ksour (plural of ksar) built by Berber communities Ksar Ouled Soltane, is located on a hilltop, to help protect it from raiding parties in previous centuries. Kamel Laroussi dates its earliest construction to 1699.
Ksar Ouled Soltane is now a tourist destination, with visitors coming to see its well-preserved granary vaults. It was also featured in the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in some of the scenes used to represent the slave quarters of Mos Espa, where the character Anakin Skywalker lived as a boy.
Text adapted from “Ksar Ouled Soltane” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ksar Ouled Soltane ranks #1,208 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #1 of the 33 mapped in Tunisia. Founded 1699, it is older than 21% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 708 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,636 times in the last 60 days, more than 85% of the atlas. See how Tunisia compares in the castle statistics.
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