By David Whitley
Harrison Ford may need a stairlift to get up to the terrifying rope bridges these days, but even with a pensioner in the lead role, it's hard to contain the excitement over a new Indiana Jones movie. For anyone who grew up in the 1980s, Indy was the coolest man in history. Part of this was down to the action scenes, but the spectacular locations where his adventures took place were all part of the magic formula.
So, with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opening on May 22, we take a look at the destinations that Indy has graced in the past.
Kairouan, Tunisia
Much of Raiders of the Lost Ark was set in Egypt — all the archaeological digging and those nasty bits with the snakes in particular. It's commonly believed that these scenes were shot near the great pyramids, just outside Cairo, but this is all a dastardly lie.
Steven Spielberg and his crew actually did all the desert filming in Tunisia. In fact, look closely and you'll see a few resemblances with Star Wars. Sidi Bouhlel also doubled as Tatooine in George Lucas's epic.
As for the chaotic street scenes, iconic fights and chases in Cairo, well they never made it to Egypt for that either.
All of the ''Cairo'' scenes were shot in Kairouan, a Tunisian city that's an important pilgrimage site for Muslims. This is largely because of the impressive Sidi-Uqba mosque, but most of the fun for tourists is to be had negotiating the winding stall-filled lanes of the souk. It's a feast of colour, a frenzy of action and a hive of people who want to sell you a carpet.
Kandy, Sri Lanka
When it came to the second film, it appears as though the producers didn't feel an overwhelming urge to start going genuine on us. So, while the meat of the film was supposedly in India, the crew didn't even set foot there.
Instead, they decided to use central Sri Lanka, basing themselves around the gorgeous hill town of Kandy.
The Mayapur village is actually part of the sprawling Hantane estate near the city. For tea lovers, this is as close as you'll get to heaven. It's home to some of Sri Lanka's greatest tea plantations, and it even hosts the Ceylon Tea Museum where you can find out what makes a perfect cuppa.
Kandy is also home to a famous elephant orphanage, which is one of the highlights of any trip to this part of the world. The elephant scenes in Temple of Doom were shot here.
As for the famous rope bridge scene, that was largely the work of technical trickery. It was mostly done in the studios back in London, but the gorge is real (albeit something of a composite affair). The scenes were spliced together from footage of the gorge by the Victoria Dam (near Kandy) and the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State, US.
Venice, Italy
In the Last Crusade, much of the early action takes place in Venice, including the boat chase along the canals.
Indy also discovers a vital clue to the whereabouts of the Holy Grail in a church. That church is the Chiesa di San Barnaba — it can be found in the Campo di San Barnaba in the Dorsoduro district.
As for getting out on the waterways, you can shell out a fortune for a gondola, or go for a much cheaper ride on a motorised traghetto.
The city's tourist board also organises informative trips along the canals.
Granada, Spain
Yet again, some fakery went on with the Last Crusade. The city of Iskenderun — where the Holy Grail supposedly resides — is in south-east Turkey, but the makers presumed that any Arabic-looking city would do.
And you don't get more Arabic-looking than Granada. It was the capital of Muslim Spain for a long time, and the World Heritage-listed Alhambra complex is one of those incredible places that even hordes of tour groups can't completely spoil.
Petra, Jordan
Indy finally finds the Holy Grail, of course, in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. Alas, there's no such place — they just made the title up because it sounded cool. However, they filmed the scenes at one of the most incredible places in the world — Petra.
Petra is in Jordan and it's arguably the greatest treasure of the Middle East. The ancient city is a rose-red colour, and ornate buildings have been built into towering cliff faces. The building you'll recognise from the film is Al Khazneh (the treasury).
And the new film?
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was filmed entirely in the US, so yet again there's a bit of cheating going on. Many of the action scenes are supposedly in the Peruvian jungle, but they were actually filmed on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Further details are being kept hush-hush, but given the amount of money spent there, it's reasonable to expect high drama in gorgeous settings.
The Big Island is often left off tourist itineraries, but it's a fabulous place to go to for both nature and culture. It's home to old Hawaiian temples as well as fabulous national parks packed with volcanoes.
