Ok, I’ll admit it. I have a tendency of not doing research before I go to visit a place. If I was just a bit smarter, I’d look through a couple of frames of “Last Crusade” from the movie and getting some pictures taken at the correct angles. But then, I was too lazy.
However, I did read a little bit about “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” being filmed at Petra. But of course, I did not bother to find out by looking at the actual movie which scenes they got from Petra. I did see the film when it was released at the cinema, but then, that was some years ago. But guess what, by pure coincidence I actually climbed the Monastery at Petra; the exact building they used in most of the Petra-shots in Transformers. Actually, The Monastery is considered to be the second most popular tourist attraction in Petra after the Treasury. Pure logic would’ve suggested this place being featured in the movie since The Treasury was already used in “Last Crusade”. Makes perfect sense to me.
A couple of Petra-shots from “Revenge of the Fallen”.
By using some Hollywood artistic freedom, they made the interior of the Monastery a bit more interesting in Transformers.
The climb up to the Monastery was about 30-40 mins from the restaurant and the musem. Rock stairs all the way. And because we arrived pretty late, there were almost no tourists there. In the beginning, I was really hesitant about climbing up to the building itself, it didn’t look very safe, and I am quite a whimp compared to the real Indiana Jones. I was not sure whether my travel insurance would cover accidents such as “Climbed up on an ancient rock carved building wearing costume, slipped on the bullwhip and fell down” or “Lost hat off the top of ancient architecture, fell down trying to catch it“. It’s 50 metres wide by approximately 45 meters high. But after seeing a couple of other tourists poking their little heads out from the top, I changed my mind. If I actually fell down, I’d die a honorable and memorable death wearing the man purse at my side, the dear Fedora on my head and the Aldens stable on my feet. I would lay untouched near the 7th new wonder of the world with some great scenery around me, probably undiscovered until found by local Beduins weeks later. (Are there any hospitals at Petra at all?) After all, I would get the most amazing tomb ever, the Monastry itself.
The climb was not hard, but required some scrambling skills. Once you reach the top, the view is simply breathtaking. At the top, I met a couple of other tourists. And of course, I was so busy chatting with them, and concentrating myself on not falling off the ledge, that I totally forgot to take pictures. A quick google search, yielded the following result:
It’s a 45 meter drop off that ledge to the right, if you want to end your life quick and easy, and with the world’s most epic view on front you..that is.
Another shot from the top of the Monastery.
The above pictures where taken from the middle top part of the structure.
By using the few frames of viewable footage from my own home videos (yea, I know, the angle is totally wrong), but here you have a comparison picture for reference.
I know, these pictures are barely comparable..but I was so excited when I looked through my home videos after watching Transformers and recognizing a few places.
If you didn’t got the references yet..
The morale of this story is, always do proper research on filming locations before actually going there.
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