Just a few hours south of San Francisco sits a rarely discussed natural wonder. While California is well known for its sun-soaked beaches, rolling vineyards, and iconic palm trees, the oceanfront dunes are a lesser-known destination perfect for breathtaking views. While the sprawling dunes are already impressive, they once buried a fascinating piece of Hollywood history.
The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes are just south of Pismo Beach and are the largest intact coastal dune system in the world, stretching an impressive 18 miles along the beautiful coast. The stunning dunes cover 24 square miles, reminiscent of what most of the central coast looked like before development. Just a few minutes from the Pacific Coast Highway, the dunes are popular for hikers and nature enthusiasts.
A Hollywood movie set lost in sand
The stunning views are not just notable for their sprawling size; buried beneath the sand is a piece of old Hollywood history. In 1923, the California sand dunes were transformed to resemble Ancient Egypt for a silent film. Filmmaker Cecil. B. DeMille erected a massive fake city set for his film The Ten Commandments. The set included 21 massive plaster sphinxes and a huge temple that took over 1,000 people to build.
Once filming was complete, DeMille had the set dismantled and secretly buried in the dunes. The fake city remained in the dunes for decades and was presumably forgotten until film enthusiast Peter Brosnan in the 1980s became determined to unearth the remains of the set.
It wasn’t until nearly 30 years later that Brosnan received funding to unearth the remains of the fake city. In 2012, archeologists exhumed a sphinx head from the set. In 2014, they found the body of a plaster sphinx just a few feet away and soon freed the century-old plaster statue from the sand.
The now historic artifacts recently turned 100 in 2023 and are displayed at the Dunes Center. As for the 1923 film, it has recently entered public domain on its 100th anniversary. DeMille remade the film’s prologue in 1956, a Technicolor blockbuster widely deemed his most successful work. The 1956 version was actually filmed on-site in Egypt and was the director’s last film before his death a few years later.
Today, you can visit the dunes both for the natural beauty and the remnants of the movie set that now reside at the Dunes Center.