An Outer Rim world located in the Utapau system, Utapau had a temperate climate and a rocky terrain of desert plains and large sinkholes. The planet had a population of 95 million. Pau’ans and Utai were native to Utapau, while the Amani had settled on the planet by the Clone Wars. The majority of Utapau’s Amani lived deep underground. Bands of Sugi also lived on the planet.

Below Utapau’s surface was the massive «world-ocean,» a huge subterranean body of water. This water contained many powerful currents created by the tidal forces of Utapau’s moons. These currents eroded the underside of the planet’s crust and caused the formation of Utapau’s many sinkholes and chasms, which, when combined with numerous storms, served to make the planet’s surface inhospitable. One of Utapau’s «continents» was more stable that the rest; for that reason, most Utapauns lived on that stabilized continent.

Because of the lack of timber on the planet, Utapaun architecture was primarily constructed out of the bones of deceased animals. The bones of nearly all of the planet’s fauna were used in construction, which later developed into a unique form of architecture known as ossic architecture. The skeletons of the huge animals that roamed the lower sinkholes and ocean had huge enough bones to be used as beams; other fossil bones were mined in caves.