MESA DESERT

Not far away from Mos Espa and the Slave Quarter settings is the site where the pod race scenes of "The Phantom Menace" were filmed. Actualy it was in the Chott el Gharsa desert, a vast shelf of salt very similar to Chott el Djerid mentioned about Lars Owen's farm. This place is where were shot the beginning scenes of 'The English Patient', when a plane lands on the infinite desert ground.  Easily recognizable is the shape of a big rock similar to a camel, named "Angejmal", which means camel head in Arabic. Once again, my own pictures refer to the only one available on the site. It was published by the German magazine "Cinema" (December 1997) right below:

Jundland Wastes

Again, the Star Wars canyon also filmed in "A New Hope"  has served as natural site in "The Phantom Menace". To learn about this setting, lets look at a quote attributed to second unit director for Episode I, Roger Christian, in the official Star Wars website :  "We also used areas where they originally shot scenes such as the one where R2-D2 gets zapped by the Jawas. Although much of it looks different because of where we placed the cameras, I think it's good luck to go back."  The scene takes place at the canyon's entrance. A member of the team recalls, "It is two sandmen aiming from the heights of a rock at a pod passing by at maximum speed along a canyon. They shoot on it; the pod lands in emergency or explodes. Then the sandmen rise their arms victoriously. Right above is the exact view as filmed by the camera of the crew.  Similarly, the extra is standing where stood the sandmen.

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