Holy Grail Chamber
The Holy Grail Chamber is the climactic setting of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, representing the physical culmination of Henry Jones Sr.'s decades-long academic pursuit. Inside a temple in Hatay, guarded by traps, a room filled with many cups holds the true Grail, kept by an ancient knight who drank from the cup of Christ during the Crusades. It serves as the final battleground between archaeology and greed, where the businessman Walter Donovan, a Nazi collaborator, seeks immortality while Indiana Jones must choose the true cup.
Quick Facts
- Film appearance
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Timeline setting
- Late 1930s
Lore & Background
The Grail Knight, the youngest of three brothers who set out to find the Grail, lives in a side chamber of the Temple of the Sun in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon; the brothers protected the Grail there for 150 years, using its power to extend their lives. When Donovan and Elsa arrive, the knight tells them they must choose wisely, warning that the false grails will take their lives. Elsa picks a jewelled gold cup for Donovan, who ages to death; Indy picks a pewter grail, the cup of a carpenter, and heals his father. The knight warns that the Grail can never cross the great seal: Elsa ignores him, setting off a cataclysm in which she falls to her death, and the knight is last seen waving goodbye as the temple collapses.
Reader's Guide
The entrance to the Grail temple was filmed at Al Khazneh (The Treasury) in Petra, Jordan, which had appeared before in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger; the film greatly contributed to Petra's popularity as a tourist destination.
More in Locations & Expeditions
Elsewhere in Indiana Jones
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