Remember, look not into the eyes of Mara.




Following the success of Star Tours and Captain EO, Walt Disney Imagineering and George Lucas would next seek to collaborate on an Indiana Jones project. In the late 1980s, this concept would be developed as an enormous multi-attraction complex in Adventureland titled Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition. This would have featured a mine cart rollercoaster attraction, a jeep adventure, and a walkthrough temple maze. Additionally, both the Disneyland Railroad and the Jungle Cruise would pass through, with the Jungle Cruise serving as an alternative transport to the temple complex. Because of the concept's vast scope, it would be shelved in favor of focusing on Splash Mountain. After the opening of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular in Disney's Hollywood Studios, the concept would be revisited in a scaled-down format that lost the rollercoaster and interconnecting elements and condensing the walkthrough attraction into the new attraction's queue, becoming Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The Jungle Cruise would be re-routed to accommodate the attraction's queue.



Disney filed for a patent on the ride's system on November 16, 1995.



The ride was temporarily closed on September 4, 2012, for an extensive refurbishment and re-opened on December 7, 2012. Scheduled modifications included enhancements to lighting, paint, figure animation, and other effects.





The Temple of the Forbidden Eye










Diagrams showing the range of motion of an enhanced motion vehicle

Guests board an Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) intended to appear as a battered military troop transport. EMVs ride on neoprene filled tires (for operational precision) driven by brushless DC motors in the wheel hub atop the surface of a slotted roadbed. The track has only three switches: a left/right split switch just before loading/unloading, a left/right combine switch just after safety check station/dispatch and a compound switch to swap vehicles in/out of the maintenance bay, behind the mirrors. Beneath the slot, a tubular guideway guides the front wheelset and a damper for the rear wheelset, and three electrical bus bars provide the EMV 480 volts AC. The power is divided among the two motion systems, control, safety, and audio systems. Each transport can accommodate twelve guests with three rows of seats, four across, with the front left seat behind a non-operational steering wheel. Each troop transport is a motion simulator that travels at a maximum speed of just over atop a slotted roadbed/guide rail track. The transport car body is attached by three hydraulic rams to the frame of the chassis, which allows the shell to articulate independently. A guest's physically intense experience is programmed to achieve the illusion of greater speed and catastrophic mechanical failure using the enhanced-motion vehicle's ability to add several feet of lift then rapidly descend, shudder and tremble, and intensify cornering with counter bank and twist.




The main ride

A diagram of the Chamber of Destiny


Chamber of Destiny / Hall of Promise


The Chamber of Destiny actually has only one operating door and corridor. The walls and ceiling of the room are designed to rotate across the working doorway and a set of four façades (two on each side of the real doorway) so that three "doors" are always visible at any given time. The doors and the Hall of Promise are lit differently based on which particular chamber has been randomly chosen. Fake tracks lead up to the other doors to enhance the effect. This is best noticeable in night vision videos of the ride. The walls and ceiling have been stuck in one position for years due to major structural issues, and the effect is now achieved via projection mapping.

  • If the transport gets the Fountain of Eternal Youth, Mara says, "You have chosen wisely. This path leads to timeless youth and beauty." The rusted, corroded doors of that chamber are rinsed clean by a sheet of purifying water pouring from the relief above, revealing their pristine, metallic nature as they swing open. In the Hall of Promise, where the  painted murals on the walls show the timeless beauty of Mara's chosen ones as everyone around them ages, the walls reflecting with the light on the water. At the far end of the hall, a massive stone face of Mara, with flowering vines scaling the walls around it. The room appears illuminated with shimmering aqua blue light. Front-lit scrims along the walls are painted to depict true believers drinking mystic water, discarding their withered skin and emerging young and beautiful.
  • If the transport gets the Chamber of Earthly Riches, Mara says "You seek the treasure of Mara, glittering gold. It is yours." The vault doors begin to unlock as gold coins appear to rain down from the relief above as the doors open. Inside the Hall of Promise, piles of gold, bronze statues, and priceless carvings fill vestibules on each side with a massive gold face of Mara at the far end of the hall. The room is illuminated with shimmering golden light behind the backlit scrims where images of gold and other treasures are visible, rendering the Fountain of Eternal Youth scrim paintings transparent.
  • If the transport gets the Observatory of the Future, Mara says, "You seek the future. I will lift the curtain of time. It is your destiny." The doors are sealed by an icyed web that clouds its carved reliefs. But upon Mara's announcement, the all-seeing eyes above glow, whisking away the icy wall as shooting stars illuminate the newly unlocked pathway as the doors. Once inside, the Hall of Promise lit by innumerable glowing stars and the temple's open roof reveals the endless night sky above, with a glowing, ethereal face of Mara at the far end of the hall. The room is illuminated with a dimly lit in purple and the ceiling above twinkles with 5,000 fiber optic stars. It tilts upward, directing the passengers’ eyes away from the dark scrims, and towards the dazzling star field.

As guests approach the idol, at the end of the hall, Mara suddenly open his eyes. Inevitably, as someone looks into them and then the idol immediately scowls at the guests and using projection mapping, shows the idol’s face 'bleed' with colors, as he rescinds each of his gifts.

  • For the Fountain of Eternal Youth, his marble stone face begins to crack and "age" as the vines around him shrivel and their petals fall. Chillingly, his eyes fade to a deep, endless black.
  • For the Chamber of Earthly Riches, his gold metal face begins to melt with acid, tarnishing and rusting it until Mara's eyes turn to copper.
  • For the Observatory of the Future, his glowing, ethereal face started a pulsing, raging storm builds from the "third eye" gem in his headdress as lightning bolts strike his eyes.

Mara cries out, "You looked into my eyes! Your path now leads to the Gates of Doom!" (For the Observatory of the Future, Mara's last line is changed to, "Your destiny now lies beyond the Gates of Doom!")

Tunnel of Torment


The Gate



Mara attempts to destroy the bridge.

The transport emerges from the passage and teeters on the edge of a vast pit of lava. Another transport is seen attempting to cross a rickety rope bridge which spans the pit under the crumbling ceiling. (The crumbling ceiling effect has since been disabled early on, as the system involved chunks of ice being dropped from a conveyor belt, and the belt mechanism was rusting quickly; despite this, the sound effect has been left in.) On the far side of the cavern, there is a 45-foot-tall stone face of Mara, the left half of which has eroded in such a way that it resembles a skull, 'lava' occasionally pouring out of its mouth into the pool below. Its left eye contains a swirling flame, and periodically shoots green rays at both means of transports, causing flames to erupt from where the beam hits.

Mummy Chamber

The transport turns left and enters catacombs of false pathways lined with skeletons, some of which pop out toward the guests. A fierce wind blows from the catacombs. "Bones", an official "Hidden Mickey", is a skeleton at the left, beside the exit-way, with its right arm outstretched toward the track, wearing a Mouseke-ears hat backward and aviator glasses, displaying the embroidered name "Bones".

Bug Room


The Pit


Snake Temple


Mud Slide





Rat Cave


As the transport nears the root, many rats are seen climbing across it and falling off into the car when another burst of speed sends the car through the tree root, which vaporizes like mist. (This effect is not achieved through holography, but through a simple video projection onto a water vapor sheet screen; as a result, the effect is subpar at best.)

Dart Room


Rolling Boulder



Return to Base

Cast members in costume


  • "Not bad, for tourists!",
  • "Next time, you're on your own.",
  • "Don't tell me that wasn't big fun!" or
  • "Tourists, why'd it have to be tourists?"





Hidden Mickeys

There is a Hidden Mickey in the attraction:

  • Mummy Chamber: A skeleton is wearing a Mickey Ears skull cap backwards, as well as aviator shades; "Bones" is embroidered on it.


See also

v - e - d
1000px-Disneyland Park Logo svg.png
Main Street, U.S.A.

Seasonal: It's a Small World Holiday


Seasonal: Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy

New Orleans Square
The Haunted MansionPirates of the Caribbean

Seasonal: Haunted Mansion Holiday

Critter Country
Mickey's Toontown
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's RunStar Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Current Entertainment
Magic HappensFantasmic!


Former Attractions and Entertainment


Disneyland Hotel

v - e - d
Indiana Jones logo.png
Indiana Jones 5
Disney Parks
Indiana JonesMarion RavenwoodMarcus BrodySallahRené BelloqJock LindseyWillie ScottShort RoundMola RamMaraPacoCrystal Skull
IndiaChinaSouth AmericaItalyGermany
See Also
The Raiders MarchArk of the Covenant

v - e - d
Kingdom Keepers Logo.png

