DEMILLE'S LOST CITY OF THE PHARAOH

Buried under the windswept and shifting sands of the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes lay the remnants of a lost city.

In 1923, filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille built the largest set in movie history for his silent film epic, "The Ten Commandments." In its day, it was the largest and most expensive project ever put on film. The set was called "The City of the Pharaoh." (Demille's more famous 1956 remake of "The Ten Commandments" would star Charlton Heston as Moses -- leader of the Israelites out of Egypt.)

DeMille's legendary set/Egyptian palace for "The Ten Commandments" was more than 720 feet wide and 120 feet tall. Flanked by four 40-ton statues of Pharaoh Ramses II (each over 30-feet high) and twenty-one giant plaster sphinxes (each weighing 5 tons apiece) lined a path to the temple's gates. DeMille populated his city with 2,500 actors and extras (housing them in tents on an adjacent dune) including 5,000 animals used in the film production consisting of horses, donkeys, goats, cows, and camels.

At the conclusion of the filming, DeMille ordered that the massive set be dismantled and secretly buried in the ancient sands of the Guadalupe Dunes. And there it lay, forgotten, for the next 60 years... DeMille's lost "City of the Pharaoh."

Filmmaker Peter Brosnan (and discoverer of "DeMille's Lost City" in 1983) is trying to raise funds in order to excavate the lost city and to help preserve the fragile remnants of film history.

The "City of the Pharaoh" is closed to the public but the site is viewable from roadway traveling through the Rancho Guadalupe Dunes Preserve. Fragments of concrete, wood, cables, and plaster are scattered on top of an undisclosed location/tall dune (bring binoculars). Original artifacts of the set are on display at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center and NAPA Auto Parts store/museum in Guadalupe, California, as well.

More recent movies filmed in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes area include such productions as G.I. Jane, Hidalgo, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3.

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• DeMille's Lost City
• The Ten Commandments
• Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes
• Guadalupe
• Pismo