Top 10 The Odyssey Filming Locations You Can Actually Visit (Nolan's Real-World Epic)

Nolan shot his Odyssey the hard way: real beaches, real castles, real volcanoes across six countries. Here are the ten locations behind the film — and exactly how to stand in them yourself

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Christopher Nolan famously refuses to fake a landscape, and for The Odyssey — his 172-minute adaptation of Homer's epic, arriving in IMAX on July 17, 2026 — he took that stubbornness to its logical extreme. No green screens, no digital seas. Instead, a 500-person crew spent seven months hauling brand-new IMAX cameras across six countries, from Saharan dunes to Icelandic glaciers, to give Odysseus's ten-year journey home a world that actually exists. Nolan himself joked that the shoot was a nightmare "in all the right ways."

The wonderful side effect for travelers: almost every place in the film is somewhere you can actually go. Here are the ten locations behind The Odyssey, and how to reach each one.

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1.‍ ‍

Aït Benhaddou, Morocco — Troy

The film opens where the poem does: at the fall of Troy, and Nolan reportedly staged it at Aït Benhaddou, the fortified clay village near Ouarzazate that has already played backdrops in Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator and Game of Thrones. The first scenes of the entire production were shot here in February 2025, with additional Moroccan filming in Marrakesh and the coastal town of Essaouira. If any place on Earth can pass for a Bronze Age city under siege, it is this one.

How to visit: A UNESCO World Heritage site, roughly 30 minutes from Ouarzazate and about 4 hours from Marrakesh; day tours run constantly from both. A small fee is sometimes collected to cross into the old village. Go at sunrise before the tour buses.

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2.‍ ‍

Favignana, Sicily — the heart of the shoot

The small Egadi island off Sicily's west coast — nicknamed Goat Island — became the production's main base, with the cast and crew practically taking over the island for months. The choice is almost cheeky: local tradition has long identified Favignana as the spot where Odysseus hunted wild goats before the encounter with the Cyclops. Matt Damon has described hiking up to the Castle of Santa Caterina, the fort crowning the island, every day of the shoot. The turquoise cove of Cala Rossa and the rocky coastline appear throughout the sea-going stretches of the film.

How to visit: Ferries and hydrofoils run from Trapani (about 30-60 minutes). Rent a bicycle at the port — it's how the whole island gets around — and pack swimwear for Cala Rossa.

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3.‍ ‍

The Aeolian Islands, Italy — the realm of the winds

North of Sicily, Nolan filmed around Lipari, the tiny islet of Basiluzzo and the smoking crater of Vulcano. Homer readers will smile: this volcanic archipelago is named for Aeolus, keeper of the winds, who in the poem hands Odysseus a bag containing every wind in the world. (A crew member opens it within sight of home. It does not go well.) Authorities even closed the waters around Basiluzzo to boats during filming.

How to visit: Hydrofoils from Milazzo, Sicily, serve the archipelago year-round. Lipari makes the best base; Vulcano's crater rim walk and mud baths are a half-day trip from there.

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4.‍ ‍

Voidokilia Beach, Greece — the shipwreck shore

The Peloponnese's most photogenic beach — a near-perfect omega-shaped crescent of pale sand in Messenia — reportedly hosts one of the film's pivotal moments, a lone survivor washing ashore. Beside it sits Nestor's Cave, used for the Polyphemus sequences, a cavern that mythology already claimed as the hiding place of Hermes's stolen cattle. Some places don't need a set decorator.

How to visit: Free and open year-round, about 15 minutes' drive from Pylos. Park at the Voidokilia lot and walk in; the climb to Nestor's Cave and the Paleokastro ruins above takes 20-30 minutes.

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5.‍ ‍

Methoni Castle, Greece

A short drive south of Pylos, this 13th-century Venetian fortress spills off the coastline onto a tiny islet, connected by a stone bridge, with the sea lapping at its walls on three sides. The production filmed here during its Greek leg in March 2025, and it is easy to see why: the fortress reads as ancient, remote and slightly mythical even in person.

How to visit: Open to visitors for a small entry fee (a few euros); check seasonal hours. Combine with Voidokilia and Pylos for a one-day Odyssey mini-route through Messenia.

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6.‍ ‍

Acrocorinth, Greece — the walls of Ithaca

The mightiest castle of the Peloponnese, rising more than 500 meters above the ancient plains near Corinth, reportedly stands in for the fortified palace of Ithaca — the home Odysseus spends the entire story trying to reach. Fittingly, myth stages a divine property dispute here between Poseidon and Helios. The ramparts wrap an entire hilltop, and the view stretches across two gulfs.

How to visit: About an hour's drive from Athens. Entry is inexpensive; wear real shoes — the paths are steep, rocky and completely worth it.

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7.‍ ‍

Findlater Castle and the Moray Coast, Scotland

For the story's wilder, colder waters, Nolan turned to Scotland's northeast. The clifftop ruin of Findlater Castle, hanging fifty feet above the Moray Firth, anchored the Scottish leg in June 2025, while a huge Viking-style ship — reported as the largest built in modern times — appeared in Buckie Harbour, and the cast was spotted boarding boats at the little peninsula village of Burghead.

How to visit: Findlater is free, reached by a 15-20 minute clifftop walk from a small car park near Sandend (around 10 miles from Banff). The ruin itself is unstable — admire from the viewpoint, and hold onto your hat.

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8.‍ ‍

Iceland — the realm of gods and isolation

Nolan has filmed in Iceland since Batman Begins, and for The Odyssey he used its most elemental corners: the black slopes of Hjörleifshöfði on the south coast, the braided glacial channels of the Markarfljót river, and the desolate flats of Syðra Skógarnes — reportedly the backdrop for Odysseus's loneliest chapter, stranded on Calypso's island. A full-scale ship set was built near the harbor of Landeyjahöfn.

How to visit: All are on or near the south coast, within day-trip range of Reykjavík with a rental car; a 4x4 is wise for the rougher approaches. Hjörleifshöfði sits just off the Ring Road near Vík.

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9.‍ ‍

The White Dune, Dakhla, Western Sahara

The production's most far-flung stop: a lone, sculptural white dune rising out of a turquoise lagoon near Dakhla, on the Atlantic edge of the Sahara. It is one of the strangest and most beautiful landscapes on the continent — a natural choice for a story about the edges of the known world.

How to visit: Dakhla is a kitesurfing hub with direct flights from Casablanca. The dune (Duna Blanca) is a standard excursion from town, best at low tide when the lagoon reveals its sandbars.

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10.‍ ‍

Malta — the sea itself

Not every wave in an ocean epic can be shot on the open ocean. Malta, home of the film industry's most famous water-filming tanks and a veteran of Troy and Gladiator, was used for the complex marine and naval sequences that would have been unsafe at sea. The tanks themselves are a working studio, but the island's Grand Harbour fortifications and filming heritage make it a worthy pilgrimage for location hunters anyway.

How to visit: Malta is a compact, ferry-and-bus-friendly island; Valletta's fortifications, many of them screen veterans themselves, are open to visitors year-round.

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Planning an Odyssey trip of your own

You can't do all ten in one journey — Odysseus took a decade, after all — but two routes cover most of it. A Mediterranean loop pairs the Peloponnese (Voidokilia, Methoni, Acrocorinth) with western Sicily and the Aeolians via ferries. A wilder northern route links Scotland's Moray coast with Iceland's south shore. Either way you'll be standing in landscapes chosen by one of cinema's most location-obsessed directors — and in several cases, in places that people have connected to Homer's poem for over two thousand years.

If you enjoy walking through the real worlds behind epic stories, our guide to the Game of Thrones filming locations in Dubrovnik covers the same idea, one sea to the east.

The Odyssey opens in IMAX and theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026. Location details reflect production reports at the time of writing; scene-to-location matches marked "reportedly" will be confirmed once the film is out — we'll update this guide after opening weekend.

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