This post was originally published in October 2015. It has been updated.

Mars has been at the forefront of the world’s mind lately, what with NASA’s recent announcement that evidence of flowing water has been discovered on the planet’s surface. We'll soon even be able to go there with VR. But our fascination with the Red Planet—and what would happen if mankind were to pay a visit—goes way back. Earthlings have dreamed up science fiction about Mars since at least the 19th century, and the more we find out about the planet, the more our curiosity has grown. But, whether you realize it or not, you may already have been to Mars—or at least one of its earthly stand-ins.

One of the latest speculative forays to the fourth planet is *The Martian,*Ridley Scott’s Oscar-nominated flick about an astronaut (Matt Damon) who winds up stranded on the planet’s surface and must figure out a way to survive solo. To approximate Mars’s dusty red environs, Scott shot the movie’s exteriors in Wadi Rum in southern Jordan. Also called the Valley of the Moon, the 278-square-mile protected area looks about as Martian as you’re likely to find on Earth.

This isn’t the first time Wadi Rum has played Mars on film. Scenes from two 2000 thrillers, Red Planetand *Mission to Mars,*were also shot here, as was 2013’s The Last Days on Mars.(The valley has also played itself, most notably in David Lean’s 1962 masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia.)

Wadi Rum has long inspired space-movie filmmakers. Getty

While Wadi Rum may be the most popular earthly representation of the surface of Mars, it certainly isn’t the only one. With its stunning canyons and red rock formations, the American Southwest has also been a popular shooting spot. Andrew Stanton filmed his 2012 Mars-set space fantasia *John Carter,*in Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, including in and among the otherworldly arches of Utah’s Canyonlands National Park.

For the freaky Total Recall(1990), director Paul Verhoeven filmed Martian cityscapes in Mexico City, but used Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park as the barren surface of the planet. Most old-time Mars movies were shot primarily on sound stages, but Byron Haskin’s 1964 adventure flick Robinson Crusoe on Marsfeatured Death Valley’s stunning Zabriskie Point for some of its exteriors. Supernatural action film Ghosts of Mars(2001) used locations in New Mexico to evoke a deserted Martian mining outpost, including the barren white cliffs around Zia Pueblo. For additional landscapes, Aussie flick Red Planetalso turned to Coober Pedy in Southern Australia, home to a barren landscape called the Moon Plain and the mesa-dotted area known as the Breakaways. It seems that we Earthlings have more in common with Martians than we ever thought.