Anyone who visits Tunisia and doesn't take the opportunity to visit Matmata will miss seeing a type of architecture which is unique - cave dwellings. Matmata, made up of several villages, takes its name from the Berber tribes who have taken refuge in this isolated region. The Berbers, who nowadays somewhat influenced by Arab culture, still live in villages carved out of the mountainside. Others hide away in the underground dwellings or rifts in the valley. To the south of Gabes barren ochre mountains rise to 700 metres in heiqht. The conical summits are intersected and separarated by precipitous narrow ravines where figs, olives, barley and some stunted palms grow.