A short walk or drive south from the village brings you to a ridge looking back across the lunar landscape of conical hills, pitted with the dark circular shadows of the troglodyte courtyards. This is the photograph that explains why Matmata's villages look "invisible" — they vanish into the rock.
Late afternoon gives the best light, when the long shadows pick out individual craters across the slope. A pull-off on the road south of town is the obvious place to stop; locals selling fossils and woven crafts often set up there.