The Temple of Akator was a large pyramidal structure located at the center of the city of Akator. It housed the crystal skeletons of the thirteen interdimensional beings that once ruled over the city and shared their knowledge with the Ugha.
The temple was entered from the top of the structure. To get into the temple one must remove the stone heads that keep sand inside an obelisk. If all the sand is emptied, the four towers of stone on the obelisk will come together and open the floor to the next part of the temple. Then there are retracting stairs a leaping distance apart from each other, and below is water with stone spikes.
History[]
In the early 1500s, Francisco de Orellana and his men entered the temple. Some of his men were killed as they proceeded past the temple's defenses, but Orellana found the interior room where the skeletons were seated on thrones. The conquistador took one of the crystal skulls from a skeleton and escaped from the city.[1]
In the 1950s, Harold Oxley, having discovered Orellana's crystal skull, felt psychically compelled to return it to the Temple. He discovered the city, but was unable to enter the Temple. He returned the skull to Orellana's Tomb but the skull's psychic connection drove him mad.[1]
In 1957, Indiana Jones had recovered the skull with Mutt Williams, and had rescued Oxley and Marion Ravenwood from a Soviet team searching for Akator, interested in the power of the crystal skulls for the Soviet Union. Using Oxley's knowledge, Jones and his allies reached Akator first, and found a way into the temple. George McHale, secretly working for the Soviets, left behind tracking beacons for them.[1]
Jones and Mutt entering the temple
Jones and his friends were able to get far enough down the stairs before they retracted completely. Indiana Jones and his allies were lucky enough not to get impaled by the spikes when they landed in the water below, and discovered some of the remains of Orellana's men. Past the defensive mechanisms, they discovered storerooms containing artifacts from many ancient cultures from all over the world. Jones realized that the aliens were in fact archaeologists. Inside the storeroom, Oxley found a doorway leading to the aliens' chamber, and Jones used the skull to open the door.[1]
Inside the round chamber, they discovered the thirteen skeletons, sitting on thrones facing inward. At this point, McHale's treachery was revealed, and Soviet soldiers, led by Irina Spalko entered the room, taking the skull from Jones and Oxley. After Spalko placed the Crystal Skull of Akator on the headless skeleton, she demanded to know everything. While the aliens proceeded to fill her head with knowledge, all thirteen skeletons became one interdimensional being. With the skull returned, Oxley's sanity was restored, and the Americans recognized the danger of their surroundings and fled. Spalko was consumed by the knowledge and her troops were sucked into a dimensional portal. McHale, distracted by looting the storehouse, was also pulled into the vortex. Escaping the collapsing temple through a different route, Jones, Ravenwood, Oxley and Williams eventually were pushed up by a column of water to a spot outside the city, on the edge of the crater, where they watched the temple collapse and city destroyed by the vortex, before the entire crater was flooded by the river waters outside it.[1]
Jones later drew sketches of the temple exterior, the retracting staircase, and the Akator throne room in his journal. This journal entry was the last entry in his journal before it was obtained by the KGB.[2]
Appearances[]
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull novel
- "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" - Indiana Jones: The Official Magazine
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comic adaptation
Sources[]
- The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
- Grail Diary (prop replica)
40 Great Indiana Jones Quotes on Lucasfilm.com (backup link on Archive.org)
