Mos Eisley/Legends

"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi

Mos Eisley (pronounced /məʊs 'aɪzliː/) was a large spaceport town on the planet Tatooine.

Located roughly 50 miles north of Anchorhead, near the desert palace of Jabba the Hutt, it played a crucial role in the Galactic Civil War as the home of Chalmun's cantina, the establishment where Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi met Han Solo and Chewbacca)

Geography
From a distance, the spaceport appeared as a haphazard collage of low-grade concrete, stone, and plastoid structures that spread outward from a central power and water distribution plant. With no central docking facility, the smooth circular depressions of Mos Eisley's 362 docking bays pockmarked the landscape like craters.

The town was really larger than it looked, as a good portion of it lay underground. In fact, the town had a population of around 40 to 60 thousand people, varying seasonally.

Streets in the city included Corporation Road, Curved Street, Outer Curved Street, Straight Street, Spacers Row, Paradise Road, Dune Street, and Kerner Plaza. Many citizens rode rontos, dewbacks and other beasts of burden.

The city was divided into the "New Quarter" and the "Old Quarter". The Old Quarter contained the wreckage of the Dowager Queen and Chalmun's cantina. Jabba also maintained a residence there. The New Quarter was more tourist friendly and was a merchant district where tourists could relax (though there was still much crime). Each quarter had individual neighborhoods, such as the rough-and-tumble Tar Mass area.

To support the constant flow of spacers, Mos Eisley featured a large number of hotels, casinos and cantinas.

History
It had been built from the beginning with commerce in mind, founded as a substitute for the nearby, yet more expensive, Anchorhead. It was founded around the crash site of the Dowager Queen, whose survivors originally named it simply "Eisley". These same immigrants would later found the planet's future capital, Bestine.

During the Galactic Civil War, the hive of scum and villany became a target of notorious Imperial officer Moff Tarkin, who had been tasked with controlling the Outer Rim by Emperor Palpatine prior to the Battle of Yavin. He began his conquest on the outskirts of Mos Eisley, seeing the city as an ideal outpost for their operations. Unfortunately for the Imperials, the Rebel Alliance had their own outpost station in nearby Anchorhead, and moved to intercept the Empire, thus the First Battle of Tatooine ensued.



Though the Empire emerged victorious from the desert battle, their taskforce was considerably diminished, and their eventual presence in Mos Eisley was less than had been expected. This came back to haunt the Empire, as R2-D2 and C-3PO slipped through the cracks in what would otherwise have been a mighty security force. The Rebel presence in Mos Eisley was finally routed during the latter part of the battle.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones
 * The Last of the Jedi: The Desperate Mission
 * Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
 * Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
 * The Star Wars Holiday Special
 * Star Wars: Battlefront
 * Star Wars Battlefront II
 * Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided
 * Shadows of the Empire
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy