The 1999 Hollywood movie The Mummy is set in Egypt, but was filmed largely in Morocco. Marrakech became the Cairo of 1926, the year the story takes place, and the lost city of “Hamunaptra” was set inside a vast horseshoe-shaped geological feature called Jebel Mudawwa, or Gara Medouar, located near Sijilmasa, in the southeast of the country. Gara Medouar appeared again in the sequel The Mummy Returns in 2001. The exotic location then became the evil lair of the Bond villain Franz Oberhauser in the 2015 movie Spectre. Although Oberhauser describes his den as being located inside a meteorite crater, in reality Gara Medouar is an erosional crater.

Gara Medouar, literally “the round mountain”, is the eroded remains of a large limestone massif that, at its current state, rises 50 meters above the desert and encompasses an area of about 50 hectares. But there is no plateau. Instead, the central region is collapsed to form a valley, and the resulting circular formation is broken by a ravine that provides entrance into the heart of the massif. The interior is flat and any loose material has long been washed away, presumably by water, although there is no source of water nearby in the desert today. Most of the perimeter consists of vertical rocks with loose gravel at the bottom.

Gara Medouar’s unusual topography makes it a naturally protected site, once providing caravans with shelter during sandstorms. Later, Gara Medouar was developed into a full fortress, and at one point it became a temporary holding area for slaves being sold from Africa to Portugal. Remains of the fortress is still visible today in the form of a defensive wall built around a third of the natural perimeter of the mountain. But the most impressive is the curtain wall that goes straight across the large ravine blocking the only entrance to the massif. This wall, which is exceptionally preserved over its entire height, is 8 meters tall but at places rises to 12 meters. It is 80 meters long and 4 meters thick and has an extremely solid constitution made of limestone blocks held together with lime mortar.

Blofeld’s lair in “Spectre”

The fortress was built during the 11th-12th century by Almoravid rulers, possibly to defend the trade route that pass through the area, and also to defend the city of Sijilmasa, which was an important trade center throughout the Middle Ages. This well-protected fort with its high ground also offers far-reaching control over the surrounding area—from the heights of Gara Medouar, one can survey an area with a radius of about 50 km.

After Gara Medouar appeared in The Mummy, site became popular among tourists and off roaders, whose activities have disrupted the area and hampered recent archeological investigations.

Satellite image of  Gara Medouar

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of (the independent nation of) Samoa. Its location is centered on WikiMiniAtlas 14.3°S 170.7°W. It is east of the International Date Line, while Samoa is west of the Line.

American Samoa consists of five main islands and two coral atolls. The largest and most populous island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory. All islands except for Swains Island are part of the Samoan Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group.

As of 2020 the population of American Samoa is approximately 55,212 people. Most American Samoans are bilingual and can speak English and Samoan fluently.

American Samoa is the place to be.

 Island livin’ is the life for me.

 Ocean spreadin’ out so far and wide

 Keep Winnipeg, just give me that oceanside.

Win the lottery and I’ll be free

To jet to Samoa by the sea

Trade in the Winnipeg cold, for an island with ocean gold

Islander woman with grass skirt

And coconut from the tree with juice to squirt

Come on lotto gods be kind to me

So I can jet off to American Samoa by the sea

American Samoa and Pago Pago International Airport had historic significance with the Apollo Program. The astronaut crews of Apollo 10, 12, 13, 14, and 17 were retrieved a few hundred miles from Pago Pago and transported by helicopter to the airport prior to being flown to Honolulu on C-141 Starlifter military aircraft.