[[DonkeyKongCountry http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/templeofdoom2.bmp]]
-->''"I think the past is trying to kill me."''
-->--Aang, ''AvatarTheLastAirbender''

-->''"That thing is '''bound''' to be full of treasure we can steal! ...And booby traps we can steal '''ideas''' from!"''
---> [[HomestarRunner Strong Bad]]

An ancient temple or city, usually buried [[JungleJapes deep within the jungle]] or [[ShiftingSandLand in the middle of the desert]]. The temple is often full of [[BambooTechnology ancient yet sophisticated machines and traps]] that still work to lethal effect [[DurableDeathtrap even after thousands of years without maintenance]].

The TempleOfDoom is almost always inhabited, often by the same {{Mooks}} and monsters found in the surrounding environment — oddly, they know how to avoid every single trap — but you can also expect things like ghosts, skeletons, living statues and other ancient guardians. And naturally, whatever treasure you go in there to find will be found in the very spot the GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere has decided to make its home.

Occasionally, the TempleOfDoom will be co-opted by the BigBad to use as his base, which would explain why the traps still work. In which case, you can also expect his Mooks and a few high-tech surprises as well.

Named for ''IndianaJones and the Temple of Doom'', which serves as an obvious inspiration for these levels.

Compare RuinsForRuinsSake and LandmarkOfLore.
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'''Examples:'''

* Not only does IndianaJones have the trope namer, but it also has the ancient idol resting place from the beginning of ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', the temple of the Grail in ''The Last Crusade'', and the eponymous ''Kingdom of the Crystal Skull''...
** His knockoffs have them too. The Hidden temple in ''The Rundown'', the buried treasure chamber buried ''under Manhattan'' in ''National Treasure'', and the City of Gold from ''National Treasure 2.''
* Nearly every [[PlotCoupon Moon Crystal]] in ''SkiesOfArcadia'' is found in one of these.
* It'd be quicker to name the games in the ''SonicTheHedgehog'' series that ''don't'' have one of these.
** ''Sonic Heroes''... wait, no, Ocean Palace. Damn. Er, ''Knuckles Chaotix''?
** Anyway, for completeness' sake: Marble Zone from ''{{Sonic 1}}'' ([[HailfirePeaks merged]] with LethalLavaLand), Labyrinth Zone from ''Sonic 1'' (merged with DownTheDrain), Aquatic Ruins Zone from ''{{Sonic 2}}'' (merged with UnderTheSea), Marble Garden Zone from ''{{Sonic 3}}'', Sandopolis from ''SonicAndKnuckles'' (merged with ShiftingSandLand), Rusty Ruins from ''Sonic 3D'', Lost World from ''SonicAdventure'' (merged with DownTheDrain)... you get the picture.
* ''DonkeyKongCountry'' has a "Millstone Mayhem" stage as the last non-boss stage in Monkey Mines, as well as a "Temple Tempest" level near the end of Vine Valley.
** Said level served as inspiration for "Angry Aztecs" world in ''DonkeyKong'' 64.
* A large number of levels in the ''CrashBandicoot'' franchise.
* A very large number of levels in the [[TheLegendOfZelda Zelda]] franchise. There's the occasional level [[WombLevel inside a suitably enormous creature]], and occasionally a level still inhabited by its original builders (the Gerudo Fortress in ''Ocarina of Time'', the Hyrule Castle Tower in ''A Link to the Past''), but most dungeons are of the TempleOfDoom variety. In ''The Adventure of Link'', not only are all eight dungeons TempleOfDoom-type, the monsters within them are [[AllThereInTheManual ostensibly]] not on the same side as the ones on the WorldMap.
* If it wasn't for this trope, everyone's favorite ''TombRaider'' would have enormously less to do for a living.
** Oddly, sealed-up tombs, with no apparent exits to the outside world apart from the door Lara Croft has just opened, still contain live animals, burning fires, infinite supplies of poison darts for the traps, and structures made from wood which should have rotted hundreds of years before Lara arrives.
*** To be fair, if you look close, any time a poison dart is fired, if it doesn't hit you, it will disappear in another hole in the wall. The darts just get recycled, there is a finite supply that gets fired over and over again.
** Odder still are the vast amounts of supplies scattered around the tombs, but no bodies of other explorers. Did they just drop them as they wandered about?
** [[strike:''TombRaider Anniversary'''s final level is set in an ancient tomb which by some stroke of luck for Lara, is chock full of ammo and health,]] which is exactly like all other levels and already stated as such above.
* ''FinalFantasyVII'''s Temple of the Ancients, built by, yeah, [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]].
*''FinalFantasyX'' has three lost temples, each with a sidequest that unlocks an Aeon.
*While conspicuously light on the booby-traps, ''FinalFantasyXII'' has the Tomb of King Wraithwall, complete with a ThatOneBoss, a BonusBoss, and lots and LOTS of [[ReviveKillsZombie undead things crawling around]]. And it has the Stillshrine of Miriam. And Giruvegan. And Ridorina. And the Sochen Cave Palace. It makes you wonder why modern civilization bothered to build anything, since there's probably enough hidden temples and lost cities to house a nation.
* Mayahem Temple from ''Banjo-Tooie''.
*{{TheElderScrolls}} ''III: Morrowind'' has several dozen "Daedric ruins" scattered around the country. Each comes complete with a Giant Statue of Doom, Gems of Doom that summon Demons of Doom to attack you when you try to snatch them, and plenty of Cultists of Doom.
* The Ceras Lake Ruins in ''SuikodenV''. Ask not, "why give a ''sluice control for a dam'' a complex three-layered lock that can only be unlocked by three buttons on the far sides of a labyrinth, a door controlled by a one-of-a-kind magic rune and fill it with {{magitek}} robot guardians?", because the game certainly isn't going to tell you.
* ''LaMulana'' has a single TempleOfDoom, the titular ruins, contain all the levels in the entire game.
* Levels 10-13 of ''PrinceOfPersia 2: The Shadow and the Flame'' are set in a literal temple, which actually contains most of the {{Mooks}} in the game. Levels 6-9 are in a the ruins of a palace, now inhabited by snakes and flying heads.
* {{Diablo}} II has lots of them, naturally. Working from memory, there's the various Tombs of Tal Rasha; the temples under the Flayer Jungle, large parts of Kurast...
** The original Diablo was a series of Basements of Doom.
* The "Temple of Bù" in ''LittleBigAdventure'' -- traps, skeletons and stuff, not to mention it is located underground [[ShiftingSandLand in the middle of the desert]]. In the second game, it got turned into a Theme Park ''and'' the aliens' secret base.
* WesternAnimation example: The temple of the ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode, "The Firebending Masters," with killer spikes, a secretly-cached MacGuffin, a room that fills full of killer glue, and a [[JustifiedTrope justification]] for the fact that everything's still working: [[spoiler:the ancient extinct civilization that built it is not actually extinct]]. How everyone missed this, who knows.
* The third ''QuestForGlory'' game features such a temple as the base of the demons looking to do a divide and conquer on the different peoples of Tarna.
* ''{{Oddworld}}: Abe's Oddyssey'' has the Paramonia and Scrabania temples.
* Arguably, nearly every dungeon crawl in any DungeonsAndDragons campaign fits (and possibly made) the trope.
** Don't get old-school gamers started on the ''{{Tomb of Horrors}}'' and ''TempleOfElementalEvil'', both of which might as well have been called the Tomb of Doom and the Temple of Elemental Doom.
* ''{{Metroid}}'' has some, though the temples are mostly futuristic (the biggest being "Temple Of Doom [[HailfirePeaks meets]] EternalEngine" Sanctuary Fortress from ''Metroid Prime 2''), and the most dangerous aren't contraptions, but post-abandonment inhabitants (or in the case of the Sanctuary Fortress, old inhabitants, the [[AIIsACrapShoot haywire-security robots]]).
** ''Super Metroid'': [[spoiler:Ridley]] and company inhabit what appear to be ruins of Chozo civilization, deep within Zebes.
* ''TalesOfSymphonia'' has eight Temples Of Doom, one for each [[ElementalRockPaperScissors element]], where you find the [[SummonMagic summom spirits]].
* ''Mother3'' has Chupichupyoi Temple. Not a dungeon, but a key location.
* The ''{{Wild ARMs}}'' games are full of these, often just lying around inexplicably, often with fiendish traps that just happen to be able to be bypassed using one of the tools the party has picked up along the way.
* ValkyrieProfile and its sequel also have about half a dozen of them.
* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has some of these. In general, they tend to contain [[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Things]] [[BlackBox Man]] [[EldritchAbomination Was]] [[OmnicidalManiac Not]] [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul Meant]] [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt To]] [[NightmareFuelUnleaded Find]].
* WorldOfWarcraft has one or two dungeons that fit, but the best example is probably the Sunken Temple. A large temple to the serpent god Hakkar, sunk beneath the waters of a lake, hence the name. Infested with dragons and zombie trolls.
** Also the Black temple. Filled with demons, crazy orcs, a big bad and even an eldritch abomination.
** Most of the troll temples/ruins qualify (Zul'Gurub, Zul'Aman...)
* All of the temples in Secret of Mana
** And it's spiritual successor Secret of Evermore had one as well.
* ''SuperSmashBros Brawl'' has a [[ScrappyLevel classically annoying Ruins level]] in the Subspace Emissary.
* [[{{Deconstruction}} Deconstructed]] in [[{{Discworld}} Reaper Man]]. The temple of doom is staffed by a pair of VERY bored priests. There's even a little thermometer fundraising poster on the wall for the Temple Of Doom Roof Repair Fund.
* ''FallOut 2'' begins with a TempleOfDoom. There's no justification for it in game or real world history, but it's so Dooomy that surviving instantly makes you TheChosenOne, even though one of your tribesmen are waiting for you inside.
* ''[[MatthewReilly Temple]]''. An ancient South American temple buried in a giant pillar of rock, full of demonic cat monsters. And treasure, obviously.
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