Ancient Cistern

The Ancient Cistern is a dungeon located near Lake Floria in Skyward Sword. A giant stone statue sits at the center of the cavern. Water plays a vital role in the dungeon, which can be seen by the presence of streams, stream pools, lilypads, water wheels and pipes full of high-pressure water. 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's main item is the Whip and its boss is Koloktos. After Link defeats Koloktos, he can claim the first of the Sacred Flames.

Navigation
The dungeon contains a special lock that can only be opened by hitting gems in a certain order, which is found on the statue in the main room. After Link obtains the whip he can use it for tons of things, including flipping over various lilypads. Many of the lilypads have a spiked bottom that can hurt Link if he touches it, but can be flipped with the whip to the safe upperside of the lilypad. The Cursed Bokoblin in the basement-underworld can be distracted with the by the light shining of the Sacred Shield. A lot of the dungeon focuses on raising and lowering the head of the statue in the middle.

Enemies

 * Deku Baba
 * Quadro Baba
 * Chuchu
 * Cursed Bokoblin
 * Furnix
 * Skulltula
 * Skullwalltula
 * Stalfos
 * Fire Keese

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.
 * 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.