Maps of Movies

Stargate (1994)

Where Stargate says it takes place, and where it was really shot.

The Egyptian desert of Stargate was filmed in Arizona, and the secret Colorado base was built in Long Beach

Scenes and places

The 1928 dig at Giza (1928)

In 1928 at Giza, archaeologist Paul Langford and his daughter Catherine unearth cover stones covered in hieroglyphs. Beneath them lies a large metal ring nobody can explain. Catherine slips a gold amulet from the finds table into her pocket.

Set in Giza excavation site, Egypt — Where Professor Langford and his daughter Catherine uncover the cover stones and a metal ring in 1928. Google Maps · Apple Maps

The Giza Plateau, home of the Great Pyramid, is the story setting; the film itself was shot in the Arizona desert.

Filmed at Yuma, Arizona (location of the opening set and the dig) — The opening set was built near Yuma, where Rambo III had been filmed; the excavation scene was shot in three days in Arizona. Coordinates are the city point, not the exact site. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

Daniel Jackson's lecture (1994)

Daniel lectures that the Great Pyramid was built much earlier than the pharaohs of the 4th dynasty, and an older scholar challenges him on a quarrymen's inscription. The audience laughs him off; he is soon evicted and out of grant money. A stranger from the Air Force then offers him a translation job.

Set in Lecture hall (city not stated) — Daniel presents his theory that the pharaohs of the 4th dynasty did not build the Great Pyramid, to a skeptical audience.

A Los Angeles hotel stood in for the lecture hall; the theatrical cut trimmed the scene, which originally dwelt longer on the alien-pyramid theories.

Filmed at Park Plaza Hotel (now The MacArthur), Los Angeles — The lecture was filmed in a Los Angeles hotel; the French Wikipedia names it as the Park Plaza Hotel. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

The way into the secret base

Daniel is taken to a base in Colorado he did not know existed. He learns it is a converted missile silo, and that the ring he has been called to translate is classified.

Set in Military installation, Colorado (exact site not named) — The entrance to the classified Air Force project that holds the Stargate.

In the story the base is a Colorado missile silo; the exterior was shot in California.

The Stargate chamber

Daniel corrects the military's translation of the ring's inscriptions, then sees the outer track is a star map and spots the missing seventh symbol. When all seven chevrons lock, the wormhole opens and a probe is sent through.

Set in Inside the Stargate facility (converted missile silo) — The silo holding the ring from Giza, where Daniel decodes its symbols and the gate is opened.

The facility is a fictional set, built inside a former dome in Long Beach.

Arrival on Abydos

O'Neil's team emerges inside a temple at the base of a pyramid on an arid desert planet. Daniel finds the pyramid has no inscriptions to help with the return trip, and the team makes camp.

Set in Abydos, temple at the base of the pyramid — The Stargate's far side: a temple inside a pyramid on a desert planet.

Abydos is an invented desert world.

The sands and the miners

A mastadge drags Daniel off into the dunes, and O'Neil's men follow to find a tribe of humans mining a strange mineral. Daniel realizes they speak a variant of Ancient Egyptian and can talk to them. The tribe takes the team for emissaries of their god Ra.

Set in Abydos, desert and mining camp — The dunes and the mine where a human tribe digs the mineral the Stargate is made of.

Abydos is an invented desert world filmed in the American Southwest.

Filmed at Desert near Yuma on the California-Arizona border — The desert and crowd scenes were shot near Yuma, over two months, with about 16,000 extras. Coordinates are the city point; the dunes are not named. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there:

The city of Nagada

In the city Daniel is welcomed by the tribe. He meets the chieftain's daughter Sha'uri and starts to learn the story of Ra from the murals and the people.

Set in Nagada, Abydos — The city of the tribe, where Daniel is welcomed and meets Kasuf and Sha'uri.

Nagada is an invented city; the film's visual effects team created the cityscape.

Ra's ship

At night Ra's ship arrives with a sandstorm and lands atop the pyramid. Ra's soldiers capture some of O'Neil's team and kill others, and Ra shows Daniel the bomb O'Neil brought.

Set in Ra's ship, atop the pyramid on Abydos — The vessel that lands on the pyramid and the throne room where Ra holds the prisoners.

The ship is a fictional set built for the film.

Characters

• Daniel Jackson — An Egyptologist and linguist whose theory about the Great Pyramid few accept.
• Jack O'Neil — A Special Operations colonel sent to lead the team through the Stargate.
• Catherine Langford — The civilian leader of the Stargate project, who was present at the 1928 dig as a girl.