->''"Snakes. WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes"''
-->-- '''Franchise/IndianaJones''', ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''

A '''Snake Pit''' is the terrestial cousin for SharkPool - a pit or container full of venomous or otherwise dangerous snakes, other reptilians, arachnids, scorpions or other nasty creatures. The victim is supposed to get killed by multiple angry animal bites or stings. While this is a very nasty and historically plausible way to get killed, it is also fairly impractical.

A classic example of this trope is in the ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', where the heroes fall in a dried-up well full of various snakes. But the pit may also be a coffin, as in the James Bond movie ''Live and Let Die''
----
!!Examples

* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' and Indiana Jones, of course.
* In the DonRosa Scrooge [=McDuck=] story "Treasure of the Ten Avatars", Scrooge and Donald run into such a DeathTrap.
* James Bond film ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'', where James Bond knocks one of the voodoo priests into a coffin full of snakes.
** In ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', Hugo Drax threw James Bond to a ''snake pool'' - a swimming pool where slithered a gigantic reticulated python. ''Python reticulatus'' is an excellent swimmer.
* In the Old Norse legend of the Niflungs, King Gunnar of the Niflungs is thrown into a snake pit to die by his treacherous brother-in-law Atli. Related in ''Literature/ProseEdda'', ''Literature/PoeticEdda'' and ''Literature/VolsungaSaga''.
* In the [[Literature/TheIcelandicSagas Icelandic Legendary Sagas]] on ''Literature/RagnarLodbrokAndHisSons'', King Ella a.k.a. Aelle of Northumbria has the captured Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok executed by throwing him into a pit of vipers. Most likely directly inspired by the above-mentioned Niflung legend.
* One appears in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures''.
* In ''Discworld/{{Sourcery}}'' the GrandVizier, after learning that all their other methods of execution are out of order, reluctantly has Rincewind thrown into the snake pit. It turns out to contain one snake, which hides in the corner.
** Well, obviously. It's the ''snake'' pit, not the ''snakes'' pit.
** There's also Lord Vetinari's scorpion pit, but it's only for [[EveryoneHatesMimes mimes]].
* The story of Daniel and the lions' den in ''TheBible'' is a non-snake variant.

----