It started as a piece of one of the biggest movie sets ever created.

Nearly a century ago, Cecile B DeMille commissioned a set 12 stories high and 800 feet wide. It was built on the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.

More than 3,500 people were brought in to work on DeMille’s epic silent film, "The Ten Commandments." After filming wrapped, the set was too big to move so it was buried in the sand. It stayed until 2012 when director Peter Bronson set out to find the buried treasure.

"It took a very long time to get to the point of excavation and he excavated enough to make his documentary film but didn’t want to continue on anymore," said Doug Jenzen, the executive director of the Guadalupe Dunes Center.

https://ksby.com/news/2018/04/24/raising-the-sphinx-meet-the-people-behind-a-movie-set-restoration-project