| The Mine Shaft | |
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 The Mine Shaft in Season 1 | |
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Seasons Used |
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Layouts Used |
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Episodes Seen |
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Artifacts Featured |
Galileo's Cannonball |
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Temple Guard Encounters |
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Objective Completion |
7 (Ride Elevator) |
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Adjoining Rooms |
The Shrine of the Silver Monkey (Layouts I, II, All of Season 2) |
The Mine Shaft was a room in Olmec's Temple. Located in the far bottom-corner of the temple; the Mine Shaft is one of two rooms occupying that area to feature an elevator of some sort. The room is appropriately themed to a mine shaft. The room appeared in early Season 1 episodes with lead-gray paint on the back wall, then later made a return for the entire second season, this time with a wooden wallpaper design.
In the Mine Shaft, players were given the option of riding the wooden elevator up into the room directly above, climbing a ladder to enter the Shrine of the Silver Monkey if the door was unlocked, or busting through a breakaway stone wall on the room's right. Players often entered from the right of the room from the Dark Forest in Season 2, so the elevator was often used as was the Shrine ladder.
The Mine Shaft is also known for its ability to slow contestants down considerably. An entire journey on the elevator takes approximately 10-12 seconds depending on how many jerks there are as the car rises. The elevator has malfunctioned before, stopping prematurely in The Imperial Purple Robe of Empress Theodora and stalling during the temple run of Galileo's Cannonball. The latter was later edited out of the run.
Trivia
- This was the first room to ever feature an artifact.
- In The Lost Lion Tail of Little John, Claude took the key from the Dark Forest and tried to insert it into the temple guard's peephole.
- The only episode where a temple guard was encountered in this room was The Golden Earring of Henry Morgan.