The Exorcist: Georgetown to Hatra

The Exorcist begins in the ruins of Hatra, where priest Lankester Merrin joins an archaeological dig. He finds a stone talisman of a winged being. Temperatures reached 130 °F (54 °C), so the crew could only work at dawn and dusk. Hatra, south-west of Mosul, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985.

Chris MacNeil lectures a crowd of protesters in her first scene, and it was shot on the steps of Healy Hall. The film made the hall nationally famous in 1973, and in 1990 the hall's interior and second story also featured in The Exorcist III.

Visitor guidance: Georgetown University campus, Washington DC; look at the building from outside.

Chris MacNeil is also seen walking down the steps of Lauinger Library, the main library of Georgetown University. The building opened on April 6, 1970. It replaced Riggs Library, which had been the main library at Georgetown since 1891. The library has views of the Potomac River and the skyline of neighboring Rosslyn, Virginia.

Visitor guidance: On the Georgetown University campus; the library is a working university building.

Not every Washington scene was shot in Washington. For the argument between Father Karras and his uncle about the care of Karras's aging mother, the crew went to Goldwater Memorial Hospital in New York. Jason Miller and Titos Vandis filmed it in August 1972, when principal photography began. The hospital shut its doors on December 31, 2013, to make room for the Cornell Tech campus, which is now the site on Roosevelt Island.

Location precision: Goldwater Hospital closed in 2013; the pin marks the Cornell Tech campus, which now covers the site on Roosevelt Island.

The MacNeil house stood at 36th and Prospect streets, and beside it a set of public stairs begins beneath Regan's window. Burke Dennings, the director of the film Chris is starring in, is found dead at the bottom of them. In the finale Father Karras throws himself out of the bedroom window and tumbles down the stone stairs to his death. The crew padded the steps with half an inch (13 mm) of rubber and built a false front on the house so the stunt double could fall straight down.

Location precision: The film's house stood at 36th and Prospect streets, and the pin is placed at that corner rather than at an exact address.

Visitor guidance: The stairs are a public stairway; please respect the neighbouring homes.