The mountain oases of Tamerza and Chebika lie about 70 km north of Tozeur in the foothills of the Jebel el-Aïdoudi, where springs emerge from the rock and support small palm groves and waterfalls in a landscape that is otherwise bare limestone and gravel. Tamerza, the largest, has an abandoned old village next to the inhabited new one — the old village was destroyed in the floods of 1969 and never rebuilt, its mud-brick houses collapsing slowly into the hillside. A small waterfall drops into a gorge at the village edge.
Chebika, a few kilometres away, is smaller and more dramatic — a palm grove and pool at the base of a steep canyon wall, accessible by a short walk from the road. Both oases were used as film locations during the production of the first Star Wars film, which has given them a certain cult status. The drive from Tozeur crosses a plateau of otherworldly rock formations before dropping into the oasis valleys.