Where was Raiders of the Lost Ark filmed? All filming locations explored 

Raiders of the Lost Ark is an action-adventure film by Steven Spielberg. It premiered in movie theaters in 1981 and was the first blockbuster film from the Indiana Jones universe.

The epic follows the globe-trotting archeologist Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford), in his signature leather jacket, who goes on adventures worldwide, looking for treasured artifacts, finding booby traps and iconic action, as well as exotic locales reminiscent of ancient Egypt, along the way.

While Raiders of the Lost Ark is set in Egypt, where Indiana recovers the titular lost ark, most of the scenes in the movie were shot in Tunisia with additional locations in Hawaii, California, England, and France.

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Filming locations of Raiders of the Lost Ark

Kairuoan and Tozeur, Tunisia

Plenty of the scenes in Raiders of the Lost Ark were filmed in Tunisia, with the country's scenic outdoors, land areas, desert, and heritage sites used for the panoramic view of Egypt.

The scenes in the movie where Indiana was having a one-on-one fight with a swordsman that supposedly happened in Cairo, Egypt, were filmed in the Tunisian desert of Kairouan. It's the religious capital of Tunisia and is also a UNESCO World Heritage. Those acting-packed street scenes in the film were shot in the famous meandering medina of Kairouan.

The adventure epic also filmed plenty of its scenes in the Tunisian city of Tozeur, which is famous for its oasis-like landscape of rippling contours and vast palm groves. For one, the Tanis dig site, where Indiana tries to find the Ark before Rene Belloq (played by Paul Freeman) can, was filmed in a built set in the city.

The Egyptian desert scenes in the film were also shot in Tozeur, more specifically around Nefta. The municipality is a desert oasis that served as a cinematic backdrop for the oasis part of the desert scenes in the movie. Meanwhile, Chott El Djerid, which is a real-life salt lake, was the filming location used to represent the dry salt lake part of the Egyptian desert in the film.

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Kauai, Hawaii

Raiders of the Lost Ark begins with a cinematic look across a lush Peruvian wilderness, which, in the movie, is supposedly somewhere in Peru, South America. Indiana Jones was navigating through a jungle looking for a golden idol, overcoming a series of intricate traps as he looked for the ancient relic.

The scenes from the Peruvian jungle were filmed in the Kauai, one of the islands in Hawaii. The area is famous for its dramatic cliffs and lush tropical rainforest that serve as a perfect backdrop for the booby-trapped Peruvian temple in the movie. The temple where Indiana retrieves the idol was shot at the Huleia National Wildlife Refuge, the home to endangered Hawaiian waterbirds on the island.

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La Rochelle, France

La Rochelle is a coastal city in France, which served as a backdrop of the naval base scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Ark was unloaded. They filmed at a real U-boat base in the docks at La Rochelle, using a submarine that was used during the Second World War.

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Hertfordshire, England

The classroom scenes where Indiana was teaching, and where he had one female student write him a love note, were shot at The Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire.

Other interior shots in Raiders of the Lost Ark, like the scene where Indiana meets with Army intelligence agents in Washington, were also filmed at the Rickmansworth Masonic School.

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Stockton, California

While the interior shots of Indiana's classroom were shot in England, the exterior was filmed in Stockton, California, more specifically around the campus of the University of the Pacific.

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Viewers with a subscription can watch Raiders of the Lost Ark now streaming on Disney+, or rent or purchase it from Prime Video and Apple TV.