Dwellings are troglodytes in southern Tunisia, in the village of Matmata. In 1970, the government began to allocate troglodytes benefit, so now it is the most common Tunisian village with a few houses of the villagers. Initially "Matmata" - the name of one of the Berber tribes who inhabited this area. Later the name of the village was also the name of the people who built their own houses in the form of in-depth excavation of caves with a diameter of 8 to 13 meters. In some of them you can just go down the rope or ladder.

Usually 'home' is composed of several floors - two, and sometimes three. The first floor living room, on the second small closet intended for outbuildings. Since the house dug to a sufficient depth (9-12 meters), temperature characteristic of the desert they do not feel at sorokogradusnoy heat in them is always cool. Itself an earthen pit, which was dug originally called Haouch. After, from her deep into a small mountain or hill, pulled the other rooms (bedrooms, pantry, kitchen, small additional room (probably for guests), and sometimes even stalls for cattle). To bring the animals to the surface existed hidden moves that came out a little farther from the main entrance.

Each new home built not one family and the whole village, because to dig a big hole in the solid rock had to spend a lot of time and effort. On the territory of the village of Matmata is located 700 of these caves. Now some of them opened small restaurants and hotels for tourists.