Where was Dune filmed?

Dune turned the desert itself into a character, and that is precisely why its locations have become a pilgrimage for fans. The film's vision of Arrakis is vast, silent and impossibly grand, the kind of landscape that dwarfs people and machines alike. To stand in the places where it was shot is to feel that same scale firsthand, with no green screen between you and the horizon.

Two great deserts share the role. Jordan's Wadi Rum, with its red dunes and towering sandstone canyons, supplies much of Arrakis, the spice planet at the heart of the story, its otherworldly rock walls instantly familiar. The colossal dunes of the Liwa Desert, on the edge of the Empty Quarter near Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, stand in for the planet's deepest sands, mountainous waves of gold rolling to the skyline.

For set-jetting, both reward a proper desert trip. Wadi Rum is famous for overnight camps under the stars and can be folded into a wider Jordan journey alongside Petra. Liwa makes a striking add-on to an Abu Dhabi stay. Either way, go for sunrise or sunset, when the sands glow and the cinematic light is at its best.