The Mos Espa podrace circuit, a podracing track, was situated on the desert planet of Tatooine. This course, which looped around Ben's Mesa close to Mos Espa, served as the racing ground for the annual Boonta Eve Classic, an event organized by the notorious Hutt Clan. The diverse and treacherous terrain, a result of Tatooine's ancient oceans, made navigation at high speeds a perilous feat, thereby intensifying the thrill of the races.
The well-known port city of Mos Espa, located on Tatooine, was famous for its risky podrace circuit. This circuit was the venue for the celebrated three-lap Boonta Eve Classic, an event that the Hutt Clan hosted every year. Furthermore, the Mos Espa podrace circuit played host to a multitude of other races. The circuit, which encircled the towering cliffs of Ben's Mesa—named in memory of the podracer who perished attempting to climb the central mesa—functioned as the official course for numerous competitions. Despite this, podracers participating in these races frequently sought out alternative paths, hoping to discover shortcuts that would lead them to victory.
The course commenced at the Grand Arena, which was constructed on the outskirts of Mos Espa. Situated on the edge of Hutt Flats, the arena's starting grid allowed racers the opportunity to prepare their vehicles and align themselves for the competition. Many pilots experienced stalls at the grid, and pit droids stood ready to remove any such podracers, preventing collisions with racers returning to the finish line.
The Waldo Grade, a winding section etched into the Waldo Flats beneath Ben's Mesa and near Mos Espa, comprised a series of small, irregular twists that connected the Arena's grounds to Mushroom Mesa. Experienced pilots familiar with the course could recognize the mesa's top-heavy stone pillars as faces that appeared to change expressions from different viewpoints, a phenomenon caused by the shadows and intense sunlight that played tricks with pilots' depth perception. As a result, podracers focused intently on this segment of the circuit; those who did not, such as the three-eyeed Gran Mawhonic, who was more preoccupied with his rivals than the course itself, often found their vehicles crashing at the mesa.
Beyond the disorienting lighting, Mushroom Mesa's steep slope plunged racers into Ebe Crater Valley. This abrupt descent caused numerous crashes, even posing a threat to Boonta Eve veteran Sebulba, as the dug nearly lost control of his vehicle upon impact during a race in 32 BBY.
From Ebe Crater Valley, racers headed directly for Beggar's Canyon, entering through the Notch, before speeding through the barranca, an area inhabited by exiles and bounty hunters in hiding, past the Diablo Cut and Dead Man's Turn, ultimately reaching the Desert Plain.
Within Beggar's Canyon was a sharply inclined service ramp. This ramp was designed to provide race personnel with access to the course for scavenging or repairing cam droids. These service ramps ascended from the valley floors to higher elevations. However, only the young Anakin Skywalker successfully navigated over the ramp and safely descended further along the circuit, landing in the Desert Plain ahead, as no other podracer managed to surpass the maximum repulsorlift altitude.
Sebulba, the dug podracer, viewed the long, flat Desert Plain as a welcome respite from the more challenging parts of the podrace circuit. Consequently, Sebulba's thoughts turned to devising underhanded tactics, sabotaging the vehicles of other racers across the desert wilderness. The plain's open expanse also offered ample scavenging opportunities for the native Jawas. Organized into small teams scattered throughout the circuit, they observed the race from close proximity and competed with the raceway's official P-100 salvage droids for scrap podrace parts from crashes. The parts recovered by the salvage droids were typically auctioned off or sold, often to Jawas, unless claimed by their original owner within a two-hour timeframe.
While lesser races sometimes directed podracers across the Dune Sea, the Boonta Eve circuit instead traversed the Arch Canyon, a rugged collection of stone columns that constricted the path around Ben's Mesa, creating a section of the raceway with a width comparable to that of Beggar's Canyon.
The Whip, the section preceding the Jag Crag Gorge, featured sweeping turns that deviated from Ben's Mesa. However, the circuit eventually curved back to follow the mesa's claw-shaped outline, guiding racers into the Laguna Caves, an underground network of caves that exited along a ridge extending from Ben's Mesa.
Despite the relatively straight path between the Laguna Caves entrances, podracers on the circuit were vulnerable to colliding with stalactites within the dimly lit environment. Furthermore, these caves served as the habitat of the formidable krayt dragon, whose presence in this segment of the circuit discouraged rescue teams from assisting crash survivors.
Emerging from the cave network's expansive exit, the race circuit continued through the Canyon Dune Turn, a lengthy trail that wound around one of Ben's Mesa's extended ridges, leading podracers down a valley wider than Beggar's Canyon and its more spacious predecessor, the Waldo Grade. However, around 32 BBY, the Canyon Dune Turn's cliffs became a favored shooting location for the native Tusken Raiders, posing a threat to racers' lives as the incoming fire risked piercing the hull of racing engines and damaging podracers. Despite numerous anonymous complaints from pilots to race officials, these protests were ignored, and the Raiders' presence became a popular, albeit dangerous, aspect of the Boonta Eve Classic.
Regardless, podracers who managed to avoid the Tusken Raiders' shots sped toward the Bindy Bend, a meandering turn that had eroded into Ben's Mesa. The bend's curve on the nearside featured jagged rocks surrounding a large stone spindle, obstructing racers' path around the turn. Consequently, pilots were compelled to steer clear of the rocks on the nearside as they continued along the podrace circuit.
The race circuit guided podracers past increasingly smaller rocks, funneling them into the Coil, a narrow canyon that twisted away from the central mesa and transitioned into Jett's Chute, a large and particularly treacherous bend characterized by multiple arches. Spectators often debated the merits of weaving in and out of the rock formations versus slipping through them, with the latter strategy becoming known as "threading the needle."
Beyond the arches, pilots descended from Jett's Chute to the winding canyon path known as the Corkscrew, from which the cliff-sides converged into Devil's Doorknob, a narrow gap that required racers to tilt their repulsorcrafts on their sides to squeeze through into the open expanse of the Hutt Flats.
The Hutt Flats, the dried-up bed of the prehistoric Lake Anre, formed the final section of the Mos Espa circuit. Podracers jostled for position across the vast terrain near the Northern Dune Sea, allowing pilots to accelerate to maximum speed and aggressively challenge other contenders in their pursuit of crossing the Grand Arena's finish line, thus completing the podrace circuit.
This racecourse made its debut in the 1999 prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. It was comprehensively illustrated and first identified as the Mos Espa podrace circuit in the 2000 reference book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I. However, the name and illustration were not officially canonized until the publication of the 2016 reference book Star Wars: Complete Locations.