A spaceport city on the remote planet Tatooine, Mos Eisley attracts interstellar commerce as well as spacers looking for rest after a long haul. The vast number of aliens and humans constantly moving through the spaceport and its distance from the centers of government activity have long made Mos Eisley a haven for thieves, pirates and smugglers. The local presence of crime lord Jabba the Hutt seems only appropriate amidst this "wretched hive of scum and villainy."

The city's old central section is laid out like a wheel, while the newer sections are formed into straight blocks of buildings that are half-buried to protect them from the heat of Tatooine's twin suns. Instead of having a central landing area, the entire city is a spaceport, with crater-like docking bays scattered throughout its structure.