The Caves of Amun
By Will Gell
Walkthrough downloaded from author's site
 

After escaping the horrors of Scarabinth, Lara finds herself in the legendary Caves of Amun. Hidden here somewhere is the priceless Amulet of Amun. But to get to it Lara has to pass some tough puzzles before escaping with the Amulet.

Secrets : 3

Pick ups: 11

Puzzle Items: 8

The level begins where Lara left Scarabinth. Walk down the corridor to a hallway with openings left and right. It doesn`t really matter which you take first. Let`s go right. Climb through the opening and you`ll see a lever switch and a closed gate. Push the lever and you`ll hear a door open but it isn`t the one behind you. It`s the one in the lefthand room! Before you go there climb up onto the block behind the lever switch to find Secret No. 1. Flares. Now go back to the lefthand opening and find another switch and an open gateway. Push the switch and that will open the gate in the room you just left. Go on through the opening and find another switch and a gate high in the wall to your right. Push the switch to open this gate. Now head back to the first room again and go through the open gate and into another room with a switch and a closed gate high on the wall facing you. Note also the shimmy crack leading to this door. Push the switch to open the gate. You cannot get to the open gate from this room. You have to head back all the way through the lefthand rooms again to the room with the open gate high on the righthand wall. At the entrance to this room stand hard against the high block opposite the sloping block at the entrance. Flip back onto the sloping block and jump and grab the high block and pull up into the space above. From here you can do a running jump over to the open gate. Hold down the action key as you jump to make Lara jump right into the opening. From here jump over and grab the crack in the far wall in the next room and shimmy left to the opening and climb out and head down the steps carefully.

At the bottom of these steps you will come to a hole in the floor. Do a hang and drop down this hole. It`s long drop and Lara will lose some health here so make sure Lara has full health before you do the drop. You will now be in a short cave like tunnel. Head down and come to another hole. Again drop down but this one is not so high. Lara is now in the caves. Walk on until you find an opening leading down a slope into a larger cave with an opening to the left and an opening in the far right corner. Take the left opening. Follow the tunnel until Lara comes to a dead end with a grey enscribed wall. Nothing you can do here yet so head back to the larger cave and through the other opening and find yourself in a cave with lava at the bottom. Jump onto the ledge to your left round the corner and follow this ledge as far as you can. Then do a run, jump and grab to pull up onto the small ledge on the opposite side over the lava. Then do a run and jump back over again at an angle to the ledge on the other side of the lava past the rock outcrop. Jump back over again and go as far as you can. Do a standing jump to the sloped block on the other side and hold down the jump key and the right directional key. Lara will jump her way to the passage exiting this lava room. Follow the corridor. Note the greyish section of wall. You`ll come back to that later. For now head on and climb down the tunnel to another lava filled room with sloping blocks with a door in the opposite wall.

This looks worse than it is. Jump over the lava onto the first flat block. Take a step back and jump onto the sloping block in front of you and hold down the jump key until Lara is on the flat higher block to your left. Then do a run and jump at an angle over to the flat block in front of the opposite door. Jump over the lava and into the room with the first part of the Eye of Horus. Pick it up and…..EARTHQUAKE!! Hmm….. nothing seems to have happened! You now have to head back over the sloping blocks and out the way you came. Do exactly the same as before by jumping onto the first sloping block and holding down the jump key until Lara is on the flat block. Then again do a run and jump at an angle but this time right over to the entrance doorway. Head up the tunnel climbing the steps and back over the lava pit into the cave you slid into earlier. Find the other tunnel that had the dead end with the inscribed wall and follow it down. You `ll now find it isn`t a dead end. The wall has collapsed revealing a secret room with the second part of the Eye of Horus. Pick it up and again..EARTHQUAKE!!!…Head back to the main cave and you`ll see the collapsed wall revealing a new room. You can go on through if you like but for now let`s get Secret No.2. Ignore the new room and head back through to the lava room. Jump over and along as you did before to the tunnel where there was a greyish wall on the left. You should now find this collapsed. Climb through the opening and down through the hole in floor. Follow the tunnel until you come to Secret No.2 which consists of 4 shotgun ammo, the shotgun, flares and a small med pack. Pick them up and get back to the cave with the opening to the new room.

This room has a block in the middle with two ram statues. Look between them and you`ll find the "Sands of Time" Pick it up. You may also note the camera switches view here. There is an exit straight ahead. Follow it down and you`ll now be in a room with 25 floor tiles laid out randomly and a door on the other side. Do not step on any of these tiles yet. Certain death will result if you do!! Go back to the room where you found the Sands of Time. Stand in the corner from where the camera switched it`s view. The floor texture here is different. Use the binoculars with the night vision and look up at the ceiling. You should be able to see five tiles on the ceiling in the order you need to step on in the floor tiled room in order to cross over and open the door. Note that you need to land on all five for the door to open. It may take a couple of attempts to get this right!

Once you`ve crossed and opened the door Lara will now be in a room with a closed gate, a pit and and an opening above it. Jump into the pit. You cannot get out except through a passage that leads up and into a room with a statue. This is where you should place the Sands of Time. This will start a sand fall that fills the pit with sand and allows Lara to climb into the opening. From the room with the statue head back out and go right. The gate will open as Lara approaches. Jump into the now full pit and climb out to the big door with the Eye of Horus socket. Combine the two pieces of the Eye of Horus and use it to open the door. Head through into another cave with exits left and right and a closed gate straight ahead.

Go left and follow the tunnel down. You`ll come to another dead end with a wall. Nothing you can do here so head back up and go to the other exit. A flyby cam kicks in showing you a large cavernous room with a walled area on the far side and a series of blocks. Don`t bother attempting them yet. Go round to your left and find a low platform with a pattern on it. Step on it and you`ll get a shot of the closed gate in the cave opening. That`s right! It`s timed…..SPRINT!!! and turn into the cave and SPRINT again straight at the gate. Once through you`ll find yourself in a kind of shaft. Make your way down to the very bottom and find the reach in the wall switch. Another earthquake rumbles when you operate it.

Now you have to get back up again. You need to do a back flip onto the sloping block and then jump and grab the higher block. Do the same on the next level and then make your way up and then back to the big cavernous room. Note now that the walled area on the opposite wall has now collapsed. Go to the right and drop down to the floor of the cavernous room. Find the lowest of the pillars and climb up. Jump your way from pillar to pillar until Lara is facing the ledge with the exposed entrance. Do a running jump and grab the ledge. Enter and operate the reach in switch. You`ll get a shot of a gate opening in the bottom of the opposite tunnel in the main cave. Now to make your way back. Jump the pillar below the front of the ledge you are on and then to the pillar to the left. Face the far left sloping block at the point where you should have dropped down to the floor of the cavernous room. If you jump and grab to this block Lara will slide down and grab the edge. She can then shimmy along and climb up and out of this room. This is the only way out.

Head straight on and down the tunnel and through the now open gate. Another fly by cam kicks in showing another cavern like room with a large gold pillar in the middle. This pillar has places for puzzles items on all four sides so you now have to find this pieces. What you are looking for are three Ra Cartouche and two broken pieces of Ba Cartouche which when combined will make up the four pieces you need to place in the holes on either side of the pillar which will open the door on the opposite wall to the entrance. But how do you get to the pillar? Leave that for now!

Head to your right and you`ll see you can drop down via some large blocks of varying heights to the bottom of the pit surrounding the pillar. The bottom of the pillar has four openings with light emitting from an eye shape in each. In the middle there is fatal lava so be careful. Look around at the four walls of the pit and you`ll see a gate in each. When Lara climbs into an opening in the pillar the gate on the far wall opposite Lara will open. They are, of course, timed!! It is the same routine to open each gate. Climb into the pillar into the light and walk to the edge of the hole in the middle with the lava. Then do a standing jump and immediately on landing in the opposite light in the opening of the pillar jump again and run through to the open gate. If done correctly Lara should jump over the lava in the process. Once through each gate will stay open until triggered again when opening another door from the pillar. Each of the four gates leads to a puzzle which contains the pieces required to place in the top of the pillar to open the gate.

It doesn`t matter in which order you do them.

The sloping sides room with spikes.

This room has a line of spiked floor with sloping sides along each side. On the far side you can see hidden in a light emitting from the floor a puzzle piece. It`s easy! Jump onto one of the sloped sides and hold down the jump key and a left or right directional key to make Lara do angled flips along the sloped side until she lands on the flat area next to the puzzle piece. Pick it up and do the same to get back.

The room with the pillars with big blades in the top room.

Again this is easy when you know what to do. On entering the room you`ll see a number of pillars and the bottom of the room seems to have holes in the walls. Only one hole is real. The rest are just textured. The real hole is behind the pillar to your right as you enter. When you operate this hole in the wall switch you`ll get a camera shot of blades dropping in the room above. To get to this room you must climb onto the lowest of the pillars then jump and grab your way around the pillars until you are facing the sloping pillar in the corner. Note that the tallest pillar in the middle of the room is to aid your decent later. Take a running jump to the sloping pillar in the corner ensuring you land so that Lara slides forwards and then jump to the opening in the wall. You need to hold down action as you jump. Make your way up the tunnel up to the opening and jump out to the ledge protruding from the wall. Climb up the ladder here and into the room with the blades. The first blade you triggered below so walk through and then go left into the alcove to find another reach in switch. This triggers the second set of blades. Walk through and into the righthand alcove this time. The switch here triggers the final blade. Go and pick up the Ra Cartouche. Head back down to the protruding ledge and do a safety drop onto the tallest pillar below and then drop down to the floor and back out.

The room with the timed puzzle from hell!!!

This room consists of a series of pillars and a door at the top. There is a fiery trigger to your left as you enter. Step on this trigger and the door opens. You need to jump your way up and around the pillars to get to the gate before it closes. This is a tough one. Here`s my way to do it.

Stand on the trigger so that Lara is right on the edge of the trigger facing the low block in front of her. Now do a standing jump and then immediately to a right flip to the pillar to here right and then immediately a back flip to the one behind her. Turn and jump to the pillar against the wall and run and jump your way around the pillars till Lara lands at the gate. When you get through the gate closes. Don`t panic. It`ll open when you pick up the Ra Cartouche. This is a tough timed puzzle. Be patient. It can be done fairly easily when you know how but there isn`t much time to spare.

Once you`ve done it. Congratulate yourself and then drop down and back out.

The Gold Maze

This puzzle is not as nasty as it may look. Go to the right when you enter and right again to find an opening in the wall. Climb through and find a trigger on the floor. Step on this trigger to open the gate in the wall opposite. Climb through and find another trigger on the floor. Step on this. This opens another gate and is timed. From the trigger do a standing jump out through the opening and then jump through the next opening and run to your right. Follow the corridor round to you right as quickly as possible and jump through the open gate you come to. Here you`ll find the first part of the Ba Cartouche. Pick it up and the next gate opens. Climb through and up through the opening in the next wall. Drop down into the sand filled spiked trap and quickly exit to your right on the opposite wall before the spikes get you. You will know get a different camera view of Lara. Jump down and run through the steam taking a little health damage as you do. Now the camera view changes again. To your left on the far wall there is an opening. Find the opening and climb up but be careful. Lara will immediately slide into the next room which has a spiked floor so be sure to jump quickly onto the block. You`ll hear a gate open. From the block jump over the spikes towards the gate in the wall. Go right and find another opening with the gate that just opened. Climb in and pick up the second piece of the Ba Cartouche. This will open the closed gate opposite the spiked floor so go back and climb through and another gate will open letting Lara back into the entrance to the gold maze. Head back out to the main area with the big gold pillar.

Now you have all the pieces to open the door to exit this level. Climb back up to the upper ledges surrounding the big gold pillar. Look carefully and you`ll see that a rope has appeared on the side with the exit door. So make your way around the ledges to the door. You can go either side. Just be careful you don`t slip! Jump to the rope and it`s a short swing to the gold pillar. Place all the Ra Cartouche pieces and combine the Ba Cartouche pieces and place them in the hole opposite the door. The door will know open. Swing back over and through the door.

Lara is now in a room with a tomb with The Amulet of Amun lying on a pedestal. Go get it! A door will now open. Look out. So far Lara has encountered no enemies in this level but now the hounds of hell are upon her!! Shoot them and exit up and out to a large cavern what looks like a collapsed bridge of sorts. Look out for more hounds. Once they are all dealt with drop down to your right. Make you way to the bottom of the cavern to find Secret No.3 Shotgun ammo. Then climb back up the way you came. Take a running jump and grab over to the other side of the bridge and watch out for bats! Then run up and out and drop down a hole to end the level.