20 Star Wars locations you can visit in real life

Mýrdalssandur, Iceland

This one is another location from Rogue One, though it is much less warm and spotted in the first half of the movie when Jyn Erso is just a wee baby.

When Orson Krennic (pretty stylishly, we must say) walks in his white cape across the black sand of Mýrdalssandur in Iceland to persuade Galen Erso to return to the Empire to finish the Death Star, our Star Wars senses fully tingled. Because, as we’ve established, Iceland is a perfect ethereal place to set a fictional galaxy, the stark landscape speaks volumes as to the Ersos’ seclusion and provides a perfect backdrop for Krennic’s first appearance.

It’s all just…perfect.

The black sand beach and nearby mountains represent the planet Lah’mu, the retreat of Galen, Lyra, and young Jyn Erso after the Galen renounced the Empire. The beach is located east of the seafront village of Vik, and the sand is black because it is formed from volcanic rocks formed from lava which blackens as it cools.

It is not the only black sand beach in the area, with reports suggesting that nearby Reynisfjara provided the location for the planet Eadu. Eadu is where the Empire takes Galen, and the rock formations in the background as the Rebel fighters swoop in to get him back (*cough*) are also made of black sand which has formed columns just off the coast, known as Reynisdrangar.

According to Arctic Adventures:

"In Icelandic legend, it was said that the Reynisdrangar are the remains of a battle between two local trolls and a three-masted ship. When daylight broke, the two trolls were turned to stone, and the ship was trapped with them for all eternity, forming a group of sea stacks which we now call the Reynisdrangar Columns."

They’re actually super old mountains that have eroded, which is less magical, but no less cool.

One reviewer on TripAdvisor called the Reynisjfara beach “possibly the most incredible beach in the world.” Or even, as the case may be, in the galaxy.