It was late-afternoon when I rolled into the dusty regional city of Kairouan. With around 140,000 inhabitants, it’s on the smaller side for Tunisia, and I was able to navigate easily to my hotel. Kairouan is Tunisia’s holiest city, and features many ancient sites. I certainly had these places on my must-see list, but there was something else I was keen to do in Kairouan: to walk in the footsteps of Indiana Jones.
The days are short during the Tunisian winter, and before long the sun had set and evening prayers were ringing out across the city. Settled into my room, I scoured the ‘net for filming locations in Kairouan used for Raiders of the Lost Ark back in 1980. Thankfully, several Indy fans had done the hard work for me, and identified many of the spots used by Spielberg and his crew amongst the maze of the city’s medina. With notes and pics on my phone, I was ready to start my own search for the Lost Ark the following morning.
After attacking the hotel’s breakfast buffet like a shark on a baby seal, I grabbed my camera and headed towards the medina. Arriving at the impressive Tunis Gate, I took out my phone, tapped the map app, and lined up the first location on my Raiders treasure hunt. As I walked through the ancient Gate and into the medina, I was giggling like a kid.
Although I didn’t visit the sites in the order they appear in the movie, I’ll present them here in chronological order so they make more sense. Sound ok?
Now you may recall that our heroes first appear in ‘Cairo’ on Indy’s mate Sallah’s balcony. I’m not sure why they chose to film in Kairouan rather than Cairo, but since Spielberg had shot part of Star Wars in Tunisia perhaps he’d developed a liking for the place. Or maybe it was just easier to make 1980 Kairouan look like 1936 Cairo than it was to make 1980 Cairo look like 1936 Cairo.
Anyway, after Indy and Salleh have a tête-à-tête on the balcony, and the little monkey attaches itself to Marion, our heroes head to the medina for a look around. Much like I did. Except for the Salleh’s balcony and monkey bit.
They stroll along, joking and flirting, with the little monkey bumming a ride, completely oblivious to the fact that everything is going to go pear shaped pretty quickly.
When Indy and Marion reach the end of this laneway, the snitchy little monkey does a runner back to his master to fill him in on their movements. The master in turn tells the Nazi agents, who track our heroes from balconies above, and send their assassins after them.
After a short exchange on the thorny topic of Indiana’s relationship with her father, suddenly the assassins turn up and a wild fight ensues.
Indy throws Marion into the back of a hay cart to try and get her to safety, then flogs a couple of would-be assassins with his whip. The whip scares the horse hitched to the hay cart, which does the bolt with Marion bouncing around in the back.
Marion fancies her chances on foot, so bails out of the back of the hay cart. After spotting a baddie coming for her, she arms herself with a frying pan.
The assassin produces a knife, and some bad teeth in a wicked grin, so Marion decides discretion is the better part of valour, and does a runner.
The baddie chases her down the street and follows her through a door, where he promptly cops a frying pan to the gourd*. After ironing out the assassin, Marion hides in a basket as the Nazi agents close in.
The little bastard monkey gives away Marion’s hiding place in the basket, and the Nazi’s whisk her away, basket and all. Indy is in hot pursuit when the crowd suddenly parts like the Red Sea and he is confronted with a giant swordsman with a suitably giant sword.
Apparently there was a big fight scene scripted between Indy and the swordsman, but on the day of filming Harrison Ford was crook in the guts. So after the swordsman shows off his Jedi moves, Indiana drops him with the big iron on his hip. I don’t blame him. The last thing I’d want to do is fight a massive bloke with a sword if I had the runs.
You know how I promised to resolve any nagging doubts about the location of Marion’s frying pan scene? Well, just to the left of the big swordsman’s head you can see part of a palm and a dome…
With Marion being taken away in her basket, Indiana gives chase.
The baddies carry Marion to the back of a waiting truck, which just happens to be packed full of explosives. When Indy runs into the street in hot pursuit, old mate** opens up on him with a machine gun, forcing him to take cover.
The truck takes off, and Indy jumps out in front of it and shoots the driver. The truck rolls and explodes, which is problematic seeing as Marion is in the back.
Believing he has just incinerated…dare I say it…his old flame, Indiana gets on the turps*** at the Bar Marhala. He is comforted by the little monkey, who is to blame for Marion getting captured by the Nazis in the first place and arguably her subsequent combustion. After the German agents escort Indy inside the bar, he meets arch villain and fellow archaeologist Belloq. He is rescued by his evidently virile mate Salleh’s eight kids.
At this point in the film, Salleh and Indiana go to see the ‘old man’ for his interpretation of the markings on Marion’s headpiece artefact, which they hope will guide them to the location of the Lost Ark. After this scene, where Indy is nearly poisoned (‘bad dates….’), they leave ‘Cairo’ and head for the desert.
And that, movie fans, brings our Kairouan Raiders of the Lost Ark treasure hunt to a close. I had the best time checking out some of the locations where the film had been shot. It was a real buzz to stand where the cast and crew had created what was one of my favourite childhood movies, and one I still love today. But fear not! In a few weeks time I’m also heading for the desert, where I’ll continue my journey in the footsteps of Indiana Jones…
*Australian slang term for ‘head’
**’Old mate‘ is an Australian slang term used by a narrator when recounting a story, to refer to an individual they do not know personally. For example, ‘I’d only left the car for five minutes and when I got back there was old mate writing me a parking ticket‘
***Australian slang term for ‘alcohol’
If you’d like to know the exact coordinates of where the scenes were shot in Kairouan, check out Alex Hogg’s Indiana Jones Ultimate Location Guide
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like In The Footsteps Of Indiana Jones Part I, The Statues of Skopje, North Macedonia
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