Ancient Cistern

The Ancient Cistern is a dungeon located near Lake Floria featured in Skyward Sword. The dungeon's main item is the Whip, and its boss is Koloktos, the Ancient Automaton.

After Link defeats Koloktos, he can claim the first of the Sacred Flames.

Entrance to the Cistern
The dungeon is located behind the waterfall of the spring past the throne of Faron. Under her current condition, Faron is unable to stop the waterfall to give Link access to the dungeon, so she asks him to find a sample of Sacred Water, which can be found in the spring past the Skyview Temple (which is in fact remixed for the second visit). When this water heals her, she's able to help the young hero on his quest for the first Sacred Flame.

Themes and Navigation
A giant stone statue sits at the center of the dungeon, surrounded by water. Navigation through the Cistern is interwoven with water-themed puzzles, and Link must contend with areas containing streams, stream pools, lilypads, waterwheels, and water-filled high-pressure pipes to proceed.

Although at first the Ancient Cistern appears to be a serene, aquatic-themed temple - with distinctly far-eastern architecture - descent into the dungeon's lower level, which is inside the Statue Head in the main room, reveals that it is built on a sort of cursed abyssal underworld, populated with undead enemies. Dark, purple water which damages and curses anyone entering it can be found there, where a crowd of Cursed Bokoblin roam. The dungeon contains many drains and switches, due to its nature as a cistern. After Link obtains the whip (guarded by a Stalmaster), he can use it to activate many of the switches in the dungeon, including raising and lowering the central statue, and to flip over various lilypads with damaging, barbed undersides. The whip is also used often to unscrew the tops of tubes, creating geysers which can lift Link to other destinations. Many sections of the dungeon are submerged, which Link can navigate easily with the Water Dragon's Scale.

In the underworld section of the dungeon, all water is a purplish color that will curse and damage Link upon contact. This underground section seems to depart from the rest of the dungeon, showing puzzles and obstacles based on timing or skill rather than the manipulation of water. One underground section has Link fighting off Cursed Bokoblins as the dungeon's statue falls down from above. Another section forces Link to climb up along a thread as a horde of Cursed Bokoblin attempt to pull him down. In contrast, the upper dungeon levels prefer to use water-based puzzles and whip-activated switches as Link's main obstacles to overcome. The bestiary of the dungeon is loosely similar to that of the Skyview Temple, with the presence of Skulltulas, Deku and Quadro Babas, Bokoblins, etc. But new enemies appear as well.

Trivia

 * The act of unscrewing the water geysers is similar to the pipe system from the Great Bay Temple in Majora's Mask.
 * The dungeon appears to be based on the short story, The Spider's Thread. In it, the Lord Buddha is walking through paradise and gazes into a pond, past the lotus petals veiling the water's surface, seeing into the depths of hell. There in the darkness, he sees a criminal, Kandata, who once intentionally avoided stepping on a spider. Moved to try reclaiming this man, the Buddha lowers a spider thread into hell, and Kandata starts climbing to paradise. However, other sinners begin climbing as well, and Kandata, worried that the thread will not support the weight, exclaims that it is his and his alone. At this point the thread breaks, because Kandata was worried only about his own salvation and not his fellow sinners.
 * Furthermore, the architecture of this dungeon also greatly reflects that of far-eastern temples. The statue head in the main room, the Blessed Idol key, and even Koloktos bear a striking resemblance to Buddha.
 * Interestingly, the theme music to the Underworld section of the dungeon is a remix of the theme to Sky Keep.