Entry No. 26 — the Santa Barbara file — filed under: buried film set

The Lost City of Cecil B. DeMille — Dunes Center

In 1923 Cecil B. DeMille built a full-scale plaster Egyptian city on the dunes for the silent "Ten Commandments" and left it buried when filming wrapped — legend says the sets were dynamited so rivals couldn't reuse them, though the shifting dunes did most of the burying. A sphinx surfaced during a 2014 dig (a head had emerged in 2012), and recovered pieces of the buried film city are now on display at this small nonprofit dunes center.

The move: Tour the exhibit on the buried set (Tue–Sat, 10am–3pm), then walk out into the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes themselves, where more of DeMille's Egypt is still entombed somewhere under the sand nearby.

• 📍 Guadalupe
• 💸 Free
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Outdoors

Where: 1065 Guadalupe St, Guadalupe, CA 93434

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: Official site · Wikipedia

last checked: 2026-07-20