Nar Shaddaa

The smugglers moon

Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta. More commonly known as the Vertical City, the Smugglers' Moon, Little Coruscant, or derisively as Little Slugland,^[7] and in shorthand slang as Narsh, Nar Shaddaa was similar to Coruscant in that its surface was entirely overgrown with city sprawl for millennia. But unlike Coruscant—which was only relatively rundown and dangerous on the lower and under levels of the world city—Nar Shaddaa was filthy, polluted, and infested with crime everywhere. Nevertheless Nar Shaddaa remained the most important financial and trading center of Hutt Space.

Overview

Nar Shaddaa was the largest moon of Nal Hutta, located within the Y'Toub system of Hutt Space on the borderline between the Mid Rim and Outer Rim Territories. The moon was about 4750 kilometres in diameter and served as the main spaceport for the Hutt Cartel on Nal Hutta.^[2][5]

Nar Shaddaa was tidally-locked to Nal Hutta, which resulted in the fact that only one side (the near side) of the moon always faced the parent planet, while the other side (the far side) was faced towards the empty space. Because of its tidal locking and orbit around Nal Hutta, both sides of the moon spent half of the year in daylight and the other half – in nighttime. Since Nar Shaddaa was close enough to its parent planet, its orbit was well inside Nal Hutta’s magnetic field, which gave the moon protection from stellar radiation and cosmic rays. The moon was also protected by planetary shields.^[8]

Nar Shaddaa had a relatively large and dense metallic core, which allowed the moon to have an almost near standard-type surface gravity like Coruscant despite only having a diameter of roughly 4800 kilometres. Its high density was explained by having large quantities of heavy elements like iron, nickel, neutronium, zersium, gold, plutonium and uranium in its core and crust. These elements contributed of having vast amounts of mining installations^[9] and durasteel production plants in the moon’s early history, allowing for a rapid and cheap industrialization of Nar Shaddaa’s surface. It is no wonder that many mines were still in operation during the Galactic Civil War. Ores from deep in the crust were loaded to a conveyor belt that emerged from the surface, and climbing a massive spiraling ramp, reached the loading docks high above.^[10]

‍