I tend to get really worked up when I see places I’ve been in movies. Some more than others. If it’s something like the Santa Monica Pier, then it’s not all that exciting because it’s in every movie and tons of people have been there. Yesterday I saw Transformers and part of the movie was filmed at the lost city of Petra in southern Jordan, where Colby and I visited a couple years ago. Since it’s really cool and I don’t know of anyone other than Colby and I who have been there, I get excited to see it in a movie. Although there were also a lot of scenes of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt, I didn’t get quite as excited about that because they are in tons of movies and everyone knows about them. Plus, my experience at the pyramids was less than stellar.

Anyways… so if you have seen the movie Transformers and are wondering where it was filmed, then here are some pics from that very spot. It was a very isolated part of the ‘city’, a lone structure called the Monastery, which we had to hike up a mountain to get to. You can click the images for larger versions.

So here is the monastery. It’s a long, hot hike up to it but well worth it. This photo makes the structure appear deceptively small. In hindsight we probably should have paid the 2JD for a camel ride up and back, but that is neither here nor there.

Here I am illustrating the scale a bit better. I appreciated the line in the movie about how huge the doorway was because that’s kind of what I was thinking as we were taking these pics. Since most people are afraid to travel to Jordan there were hardly any tourist crowds to speak of even though it’s cool enough to be at the top of any world traveler’s list of places to go.

In the movie there were some things hidden behind this wall. The film makers had put up some sort of mural in this archway… i guess they didn’t think the graffiti was interesting enough?