Cover Christopher Nolan rejected CGI wherever possible, choosing to film ‘The Odyssey’ on real coastlines, ancient ruins and volcanic landscapes to give Homer’s epic a tangible sense of place (Photo: IMDB)
Christopher Nolan rejected CGI wherever possible, choosing to film ‘The Odyssey’ on real coastlines, ancient ruins and volcanic landscapes to give Homer’s epic a tangible sense of place (Photo: IMDB)
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In ‘The Odyssey’, Christopher Nolan traded green screens for dramatic coastlines and ancient ruins. Here’s where to experience the landscapes that brought Odysseus’s journey to life
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is rooted as much in landscape as in legend. Rather than rebuilding Homer’s world with visual effects, the director chased it across five countries, filming on real coastlines, ancient ruins and volcanic islands using 70mm Imax cameras. The result is more than a visually arresting epic: it has become an irresistible invitation to set-jetting, the travel trend of visiting the real locations seen on screen. From windswept Greek beaches to Sicily’s volcanic peaks, these are the places where Nolan brought Homer’s 3,000-year-old voyage to life.
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Aït Benhaddou, Morocco—Nolan’s clay-brick Troy
Above Nolan turned Aït Benhaddou into the burning city of Troy in ‘The Odyssey’ (Photo: Toa Heftiba/Unsplash)
Nolan turned Aït Benhaddou into the burning city of Troy in ‘The Odyssey’ (Photo: Toa Heftiba/Unsplash)
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The Odyssey opens where the war ends, and Nolan built his ending in Morocco. The Unesco-listed Aït Benhaddou, near Ouarzazate, became a 2.5-acre, 360-degree Troy, complete with a 48-foot Temple of Athena and thousands of extras staging the city’s fall. Matt Damon (Odysseus) and his men flee under cover of darkness through the same red clay alleys tourists now wander freely.
Long before it played Troy, this fortified ksar had already stood in for countless film epics, its sun-baked ramparts and layered mudbrick towers rising dramatically from the surrounding pre-Saharan plain. Reach it via a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Marrakech across the Atlas Mountains, and base yourself at Riad Bagdad Café, just 200 metres from the kasbah walls.
Essaouira, Morocco—the beach of the Trojan Horse
Above The Trojan Horse scene was filmed on the beaches of Essaouira (Photo: Peter Schulz/Unsplash)
The Trojan Horse scene was filmed on the beaches of Essaouira (Photo: Peter Schulz/Unsplash)
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Along Morocco’s Atlantic coast, Essaouira hosted the film’s most punishing sequence: the wooden horse half-buried and dragged from the surf. Jon Bernthal (King Menelaus) reportedly stood neck-deep in freezing water for hours while filming the scene.
Today the bohemian port town is better known for windsurfing and its labyrinthine medina than warfare—its blue-shuttered whitewashed houses and Portuguese-built sea ramparts have drawn artists and musicians for decades, giving it a laidback, salt-worn character that’s a world away from Troy’s chaos. Wander the ramparts at sunset, browse the souks for woven textiles and settle into a boutique riad within the old city walls before continuing the journey east to Greece.
Pylos Harbour, Greece—the ancient Greek trireme port
On the Peloponnesian mainland, Telemachus (Tom Holland) begins his search for his missing father by travelling to meet Menelaus and Helen (Lupita Nyong’o). Nolan filmed coastal sequences in Pylos harbour, where the crew moored an authentic 37-metre reconstructed trireme and trained local extras in period rowing technique.
The scene now doubles as a genuine travel anchor: Pylos remains an easy, low-key coastal town, its curved natural harbour still framed by pine-covered hills and the same Ionian light that made it a strategic port since antiquity. It’s roughly three-and-a-half hours from Athens by rental car. Order lalagia, the local cinnamon-dusted fried dough, at a harbourside taverna while watching fishing boats replace the warships.
Nestor’s Cave, Greece—the real-life Cyclops’ lair
High above the golden crescent of Voidokilia Beach sits Nestor’s Cave, repurposed by Nolan’s team as the lair of the Cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin). Rather than rely on CGI, the production built a 60-foot puppet with pale skin—unnerving even the crew.
The cave and beach below remain one of the Peloponnese’s most photogenic, uncrowded spots: Voidokilia’s near-perfect circular lagoon, ringed by dunes and shallow turquoise water, is often ranked among Greece’s most striking natural formations despite receiving a fraction of Santorini’s crowds. Reached via a short coastal hiking trail, the lagoon is at its most cinematic before the midday sun flattens the light, so arrive early.
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Favignana Island, Italy—the sun-baked palace of Ithaca
Off Sicily’s western coast, Favignana became one of the production’s busiest hubs, with over 500 crew converting a former tuna factory into a prop depot. The island’s 15th-century Castello di Santa Caterina, perched on Monte Santa Caterina, also served as the exterior location for the palace of Odysseus in Ithaca.
Flat, easily cycled and ringed by limestone quarries turned swimming coves, Favignana has long been a quieter alternative to Sicily’s busier resort towns, its economy still shaped by a centuries-old tuna-fishing tradition. It’s reachable via a fast 40-minute ferry from Trapani or 30 minutes from Marsala, making it an easy add-on to a Sicilian itinerary, especially with a luxury resort as a base.
Findlater Castle, Scotland—Circe’s wind-swept witch’s hut
The film’s tonal pivot into psychological dread happens on Aberdeenshire’s coast, where the ruined, cliffside Findlater Castle became the isolated home of the sorceress Circe (Samantha Morton). Perched 50 feet above the sea, the site is fragile and strictly viewed from designated platforms or Sunnyside Beach below.
Little visited even by Scottish standards, the castle’s crumbling walls and sheer drop give it an eerie, half-forgotten quality that needs no embellishment for a witch’s lair. Base yourself in nearby Cullen, hike the Moray Coastal Trail and warm up afterwards with a bowl of Cullen Skink, the region’s traditional smoked haddock and potato soup—a fitting antidote to the castle’s bleak, briny atmosphere.
Hjörleifshöfði, Iceland—the black-sand gates of Hades
The route ends, fittingly, at the edge of the world. Nolan deployed a massive crew to Hjörleifshöfði’s black volcanic coast in southern Iceland to stage Odysseus’s descent into Hades, using jagged basalt sea stacks and muted northern light in place of digital effects.
The headland itself, an isolated former sea cliff now stranded inland by shifting glacial outwash plains, feels genuinely otherworldly year-round, its dark dunes and moody skies needing little cinematic exaggeration. Travellers can rent a car from Reykjavík for the drive to Landeyjahöfn, the same port where the production’s ship was moored, and continue to the Westman Islands’s famous puffin colonies for a considerably warmer finale.
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After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
