In March 1995, a new adventure opened in the dense jungle of Adventureland at Disneyland.  That adventure was the Indiana Jones Adventure.  This adventure is one of the most complex and detailed attractions ever created at a Disney Theme Park, in fact, in the world!  It brings to life the adventures of the archaeologist made famous by the 1982 film, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The Indiana Jones Adventure opened before the FastPass system came into effect.  Often times, the wait filled the whole half-mile queue that lead deep into the caverns up to the temple.  It was often a 2½-hour wait!  However, there was plenty to keep guests busy.  The queue is one of the most impressive in the world, with so much detail and atmosphere; even the writing on the walls draw you into the adventure.

The inscriptions on the wall are not just decorations, but instead, real messages!  When the attraction first opened, Disneyland would hand out decoder cards so guests could decode the messages while they waited in line.  Some of these messages are transcripts of AT&T commercials, the original sponsor of the ride.              

The ride is set in 1935 and takes guests through a breathtaking, hair-raising quest through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye in search of treasures.  Once you board the jeep troopers and leave the loading station, you set out on your Indiana Jones adventure.  After you pass the Chambers of Destiny, there are three different doors your trooper can take you to: 1) the Fountain of Eternal Youth, 2) the Hall of Riches, and 3) the Observatory of the Future. The jeep trooper randomly enters one of the doors and ascends along a sloped tunnel.  Along the rest of your journey, you will encounter snakes, bats, fire, booby traps, a collapsing bamboo bridge, thousands of rats, skeletons and a rampaging boulder!  Listen as you approach the unloading area as you'll be introduced to Sallah where you will hear him make a comment appropriate to which door of the Temple you went through.

Daring adventurers journey through this quest in a 12-passenger jeep trooper.  Each trooper is a mini stimulator capable of a variety of movements to enhance the ride as it travels along the track.  There are almost 160,000 different possible combinations, which practically guarantees you a different ride every time you go.  Maybe if you are lucky, you will get to drive!  Just be careful not to look into the eye of Mara!

Additional Indiana Jones Adventure Trivia:

• The ride building is actually outside of the original Disneyland boundaries.
• This is why the queue seems so long -- it really *is*! It passes under the Disneyland Railroad's train tracks right about the Spike Room.
• Just after the Newsreel section the queue passes by Indy's office -- this area has props from some of the Indiana Jones movies.
• "Throughout the life of the project, over 400 Imagineers worked on the design and construction, including a core team of nearly 100. " **
• " The entire site features more than 1,300 props, including the actual troop transport (located in the base camp of the exterior queue) from the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark." **
• " The Temple of the Forbidden Eye contains over 2,000 replicated human skulls." **
• "The attraction includes over 2,129 sculpted, carved, painted or living representations of snakes." **
• "Over 600 strobes simulate lighting inside the Tunnel of Torment. The Cavern of Bubbling Death measures 50 feet high. Mara's power can cause nearly 60 pounds of rubble to tumble every 18 seconds. Wind speeds inside the Mummy Chamber can gust up to 60 mph. The Rolling Boulder in the attraction's finale is 16 feet in diameter." **
• While waiting in the queue at the bottom of the cavern, there is a video of the Egyptian archeologist Sallah giving you safety tips and introducing you to Indiana Jones.  The actor in the video is John Rhys-Davies, the original actor in the Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark movie.

** Additional trivia information quoted directly from the Imagineering Preview booklet published by WDI Communications.