The Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of JordanWashington, d.c.

Stretching about 400 miles, the Jordan Trail weaves through such storied sites as the ancient city of Petra and vast spaces of desert dune and rocky valley. Where Nabataeans and Romans once walked along trade routes, adventure travelers now roam.

Since 2011, this area has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list, mainly because of the ancient rock drawings and a temple left here by the Nabataeans, a tribe living here in the Middle East during the classical era. The film industry is rather fond of this unique piece of the planet. Because the sand is red and almost surreal, Wadi Rum is cast regularly as the red planet. Mission to Mars, Red Planet, The Last Days on Mars and The Martian were all filmed here. For The Martian, they even installed an entire road, lanterns and all. The Bedouin are happy to drive through it in their SUVs.

Filmmakers have to do a lot with the tools they’re given, we don’t yet live in an age where you can pop over to Mars to shoot your movie. Till that day comes, the next best thing for the majority of sci-fi films or just films looking for a beautiful desert landscape, is a place in Jordan.
 

Wadi Rum in Jordan, also known as the Valley of the Moon, is the largest wadi in Jordan and one of the most featured deserts in all of cinema. The valley is cut into the sandstone and granite, creating an almost martian-like landscape for filmmakers to play with.
 

Beyond its surreal appearance, it is also downright beautiful, serving as a popular backdrop to many Arab-set films.

A popular Jordanian coastal resort on the Red Sea has found a new use for out-of-service tanks, armored troop carriers and even a helicopter: as building blocks of an artificial reef and an underwater museum.
 

A helicopter donated by the Royal Jordanian Air Force was one of several military relics submerged on Wednesday as part of the display by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority.
 

The authority is promoting the environmental and tourism benefits of the underwater installation, which will create a reef for marine life.