During filming in the Valley of the Kings, an unforecast sandstorm swept up on the location while the production was shooting a goodbye scene between Charlton Heston and Susannah York, where Heston rides off into the night in his Land Rover. Arab tents lost their footings and flew into the air while Susannah York was knocked over by the sudden and powerful gust of wind. Moreover, camera bulbs got smashed and the crew raced to cover the camera with a plastic sheet. The storm then subsided and disappeared. But director Mike Newell was advised that such storms can rise-up again for a repeat showering. As Heston calmed the set, and York was helped from the side-lines by Heston's wife Lydia, Newell prepared for another take. York and Heston then blocked their spots, and just as Newell yelled "Action!", the storm rose again. As such, the scene got shot with the real life special effects of a real life storm and without any movie manufactured special effects.
Jill Townsend decided to give up acting after making this film. She recalled, "I traveled to Egypt to make The Awakening with Charlton Heston. I remember being at the top of this pyramid at 4am so they could get a shot with the sun coming up and, as it did, I looked around and asked myself, 'Why am I doing this?'."
Publicity for this pictured stated that it was one of the first Egyptology films to be shot mostly on location in Egypt rather than on a studio sound stage.
The third filmed adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1903 novel "The Jewel of Seven Stars". The first was a television movie, "The Curse of The Mummy" (See: Curse of the Mummy (1970), first broadcast in 1970, then the second was the Hammer horror movie Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971), which came out the following year in 1971. In 1986, a fourth version, The Tomb (1986), was loosely based on the novel, while in 1997, a fifth version was made, Legend of the Mummy (1998) a.k.a. Bram Stoker's Legend of the Mummy (1998).
Charlton Heston said of this film in a 1979 interview: "I've read biographies of prominent Egyptologists such as Howard Carter and Brested. The film is based on a book by Bram Stoker who wrote it long before any Egyptian mummies were ever found. In fact, the discovery of an intact Royal tomb has only occurred once in history; Carter's discovery of Tutankamun, and everything in this film is keyed to that because it's the only material available".