Alexander and the Gordian Knot

Alexander and the Gordian Knot
The Gordian Knot
Production Number	1-31 (31)
Airdate	November 14, 1993
Team	Orange Iguanas
Contestants	Tim Cuncle & Retina
Artifact Location	The Observatory
Pendants of Life	1½ + ½
Temple Layout	VII
Previous Episode	The Silver Saddle Horn of Hannibal (Production Order) Pecos Bill's Lost Lariat (Broadcast Order)
Next Episode	Ponce de León and the Lost Fountain of Youth (Broadcast Order) King Tut's Cobra Staff (Production Order)

Alexander and the Gordian Knot is the 31st episode of Legends of the Hidden Temple.

Moat Crossing

One player of each team swam a rope over to the other side. Once out of the water, he had to tie the rope off on a pole that held a second tied rope higher up; both connected to the other side. Once tied, the second player had to use the two ropes and maneuver across the moat. Once he was across, the team could run over and hit the gong.

Moat Results
Place	Team	Time
1st	Orange Iguanas	0:25
2nd	Blue Barracudas	0:29
3rd	Green Monkeys	0:32
4th	Silver Snakes	0:32

Steps of Knowledge

Only one man can be called the greatest conqueror in history: Alexander the Great. When Alexander was 20, he became king of Greece and decided to conquer Persia. On his way, he came across a wagon tied in a huge complicated knot. It was called the Gordian Knot, and according to legend, the man that could undo the knot would rule all of Asia. Instead of untying it Alexander took out his sword and cut through it in a single stroke. After defeating the Persians, he pushed on through the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Turkestan, and finally came to India. There, he stopped, and thinking he had conquered the entire world, Alexander considered himself a God. On the way back to Greece, disappointed that there was nothing left to conquer, Alexander went to bed and died. Legend has it that one of his generals took the Gordian Knot and it ended up in the temple.

Steps of Knowledge Results
Question	Answers	Team
Which of these cultures did Alexander spread throughout Asia?	Roman Greek Aztec	Orange Iguanas (2 steps left)
Which great empire in Asia did Alexander conquer?	Persia	Orange Iguanas (1 step left)
When Alexander invaded Asia, did he get as far as…?	Japan India	Green Monkeys (Wrong Answer - Not one of the three choices)
		Orange Iguanas (Swept - Advanced to Temple Games)
Which of these countries in Africa did Alexander conquer?	Morocco Somalia Egypt	Silver Snakes (2 steps left)
Which of these cities in Egypt did Alexander found and name for himself?	Alexanderville Alextown Alexandria	Silver Snakes (Wrong Answer)
		Green Monkeys (Wrong Answer)
Which of these philosophers was Alexander's tutor?	Aristotle Plato Yoda	Silver Snakes (1 step left)
According to legend, was the destiny of the man who untied the Gordian Knot…?	To rule Asia	Green Monkeys (2 steps left)
Which of these rivers in India did Alexander sail down?	The Ganges The Indus The Mekong	Green Monkeys (Wrong Answer)
		Silver Snakes (Advanced to Temple Games)

Temple Games

The Orange Iguanas are 11-year-old Tim Cuncle, who plays baseball, and 13-year-old Retina, who does flips off of diving boards. The Silver Snakes are 12-year-old Molly, who wants to be an architect, and 14-year-old Bo, who wants to be a marine biologist at SeaWorld.

Alex's World (Knotted Rope Mountain)

It took Alexander the Great 12 years to cross the deserts and mountains and conquer the ancient world. Tim and Bo thankfully have 60 seconds. There were two maps of the world on the opposite side of the mountain, and when Kirk gave the signal, both players had to grab a picture of Alexander, stick it to their shirts, and climb the mountain using the ropes. When at the opposite side, they had to stick their picture of Alexander on the globe, head back to the starting point and repeat the process. They first player to place all three of their pictures of Alexander on the globe or the player with the most pictures of Alexander on the globe won. Both Tim and Bo placed two pictures of Alexander on each of their globes, but Tim was further along, so he won a half pendant of life.

Empire Expansion (Water Chute)

Alexander made conquests look easy, and in only nine years he expanded his empire to the edges of the world. Retina and Molly get a chance to expand their borders. When Kirk gave the signal, they had to slide belly down and glide along the chute as far as they can, then get up, run back, and repeat the process. The player glides the farthest and expands their boundaries in 60 seconds won. Molly was farther than Retina, awarding Molly a half pendant of life.

Column Reconstruction (Pulley Pillar)

Some cities resisted Alexander so strongly and practically had to dismantle them stone by stone. Here, both teams get to reconstruct some of the destroyed columns. Before each team was an ancient column, and when Kirk gave the signal, one player had to jump up with a ring and slide it down over the pole. His/her partner had to do the same. They had to keep alternating until their column is complete or 60 seconds is up. An oddly amusing moment in this temple game is when Retina dropped her ring and knocked over Tim's rings. Neither team got all eight of their rings over the poles, but the Orange Iguanas beat the Silver Snakes 4-3, sending the Orange Iguanas to Olmec's Temple with 1½ pendants.

Temple Games Results
Team	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Pendants Won
Orange Iguanas	Won	Lost	Won	1½ Pendants
Silver Snakes	Lost	Won	Lost	½ Pendant

Temple Run

This seemed like one of the stronger Season 1 teams, so it was a shame that they failed to win. Tim raced into the Temple and not only moved at a fair pace, but also knew exactly what to do in each room. He also avoided going up from the Throne Room, which most likely would have been a dead end, but made a smart move of trying to go up from the Holes of Python to the Treasure Room— the only player to try this, although he was unsuccessful. Although Tim kept up the pace, he completed two of the most time-consuming objectives in the first season: turning the wheel in the Wheel Room and navigating the Holes of Python. He made it across five rooms of the bottom floor, meeting his first Temple Guard in the Throne Room and finally getting taken out in the Tomb of the Ancient Kings with 1:52 to spare.

Retina was a little slower, but her main problem was that she took the longest route possible. Perhaps she was discouraged from taking shortcuts when she saw that Tim could not go up from the Holes of Python? Retina was a little confused in the Tomb, but she went straight into the Well after a few moments and took the elevator without even trying the diagonal passage. She got lucky in the Room of Three Torches, with the first torch holder she tried being the correct one. In the Shrine of the Silver Monkey, she found the other half of her Pendant of Life attached to the base of the statue, but Kirk did not announce it. Time ran out two seconds before she put the head on the monkey, opening all the doors leading out of the room. Had she tried to go up from the Tomb, she would have had more of a chance to at least grab the Gordian Knot in time.

Temple Run Results
Victory	No
Reached the Artifact	No
Method of Loss	Failed Acquisition
Temple Guard Locations	The Throne Room The Tomb of the Ancient Kings The Treasure Room
Half Pendant Location	The Shrine of the Silver Monkey

Watch Episode

Alexander and the Gordian Knot Part 1

Moat Crossing, Steps of Knowledge, and Temple Games

Alexander and the Gordian Knot Part 2

Temple Run

Notes

• Retina is commonly mispronounced as "Regina".
• The first temple game in this episode marked the first time that Kirk overemphasized the "further along" rule for a combined distance-and-collection-type game, although it would have no effect on the final outcome.
• Tim is the only player to try going up from the Holes of Python, even though countless other players in the middle of the first season also tried going up into the Treasure Room.
• Retina was the second contestant to find their hidden half pendant. The first contestant was Evan Ziller in The Stolen Arm of Shiva. Kirk, however, failed to notice they had the half pendants and did not announce it.
  • The fact that Retina found the half pendant in Shrine of the Silver Monkey indicates that the third guard was in the Treasure Room.
• This is the final appearance of the Room of the Three Gargoyles.