The Pit of the Pendulum was a room in Olmec's Temple. Replacing the Pit; upon entering the area, a contestant had to (ideally) swing on a rope and knock over a stone column in the "stage front" area of the room. Once fallen, the column triggers the unlocking of certain doors. Sometimes, more than one door opened, providing a plethora of choices. The stone column can be knocked by the contestant themselves without the use of the rope, and this has been done on a few occasions. While the exit on the bottom level requires traveling through rubble, sometimes climbing up the walls was required to reach an upper exit.
A second rope is installed behind the middle platform where players can swing out from. If a player has enough momentum to make it back to the platform without needing to drop down and climb, he or she can grab the second rope upon returning to hoist themselves back up.
Trivia[]
The Pit of the Pendulum is considerably larger than its predecessor rooms, due to the extra space needed for the column to comfortably land and rest. As a result, a long area juts out of the "original" boundary of the room area.
The bird-looking gargoyle from the Room of the Three Gargoyles can be seen on top of the Pit of the Pendulum, while the cat-looking gargoyle can be seen on the outcropping.
As with all its predecessor rooms, the Pit of the Pendulum was one of the few rooms never to feature a Temple Guard.
This was the final room to feature a half pendant in the show's original run.
All the episodes with the half pendant in this location feature the Green Monkeys entering the temple.
