An American Abroad

The Troglodyte Pit Dwellings of Matmata: Part 2

My Touareg guide Mohammed saved the best for last. We went to visit a Berber woman who lives in a beautiful home in one of the pit dwellings.

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At the end of my visit, the Berber woman brought out some traditional bread, which I dipped into a mixture of honey and oil and washed down with a glass of hot sweet tea.

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After saying farewell, we walked on. Some of the pit dwellings we saw were abandoned. “A real fixer-upper,” you might say.

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There were some variations on the pit style. Some houses were built horizontally into hillsides rather than sunk vertically below ground.

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Not all the houses in Matmata were pit dwellings. There were some more ordinary structures as well.

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I took one last shot as I stood on the edge of one of the pit dwellings and saw my shadow standing on the opposite edge.

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