Escape from the Cursed Temple

By Annmarie BurkeFabrizio Valerio Covone

All puzzle solutions will be provided at the en of presentation

Chapter 1

In 1942, the illustrious professor Michael Kane travelled to a remote eastern Asian region to look for a lost city. Few ancient scripts left hints about it but, since now, nobody managed to discover it.During an expedition in a forest the professor and his team got caught in a storm. Due to the heavy rain the nearby river flooded and the professor got swept away down the stream.After few days of wandering in the wilderness the professor accidentally finds a beaten path leading to the lost city.

Chapter 2

Walking on the streets of the city, the professor sees a tall building in the far distance. “That must be the temple” he thought. Approaching the entrance he notices that the main door is inscribed with a strange puzzle.He tries to move the door in any possible way but the only chance to open it is by solving the puzzle.

Look at this diagram and try to go over each line once

without lifting your pencil off the page or crossing a line

you have already drawn over.

Chapter 3

Dr. Kane managed to solve the puzzle and with a screeching noise the door lifted aside. After few steps form the entrance the professor notices strange hieroglyphs on the wall. They talk about a great treasure chamber in the temple but the path to reach it is full of tricks that can be disarmed by solving a set of puzzles. As he reads this the door starts to close, rendering him trapped inside the temple. The professor realizes that he has no choice but to reach the treasure chamber, because ancient civilizations always built an escape route from there.The corridor leads to a closed chamber and here are the hieroglyphs on the walls.

Three of the four shapes below can be combined to form a square. Which one isn’t used?Feel free to rotate the shapes.

A B

C D

Chapter 4

Behind a statue a small fissure opens up in the wall. The professor squeezing into it falls on a pile of bones.Down there is pitch black, so with some bandages and a thighbone he creates a torch lighted up with his luck lighter.Looking around in the room he sees another puzzle inscribed on the wall.

Have a look at this wonderful geometrical shape.How many squares can you see?Be sure to count overlapping squares separately.

Chapter 5

After solving the puzzle, nothing happens. The professor starts to swear and tap heavily with his foots. Suddenly, a trapdoor opens and the professor slips quickly into a water conduct.After a very high fall into a pool, he manages to climb a shore and he notices that he is in a cave with a door on the other side of it. On the left side of the door there is another puzzle inscription.

Only one of these pictures can be drawn with one line without lifting your pen from the paper or retracting any lines.Which one is it?

Chapter 6

With a great relief Michael Kane realizes that he managed to reach the treasure chamber. Inside it there are priceless artifacts, jewels and golden statues, but as soon as he goes over he didn’t find an exit path. Moving some golden bars the discovers an ancient inscription with a square hole beside.

Only 1 of the metal bars is made of gold the other ones are made of pyrite (a metal similar to gold but slightly heavier and worthless). Besides the inscription there are 7 identical metal bars and a rusty 2 scale pans balance.

As soon as he starts to take one of the bars the chamber start to rumble and crack all over.Time is running out and if Dr. Kane doesn’t manage to solve it he will die in the treasure chamber.Which is the minimum number of weightings to be sure which is the gold bar?

Final Chapter

As soon as he puts the gold bar inside the square hole he hears an opening padlock sound and a little door starts lifting up.Light floods into the room. The professor dives out thru the door just a moment before the treasure chamber collapse.Few days later, after wandering aimlessly through the forest he was found by his team. The only proof of his amazing adventure the golden bar that he managed to save from the Cursed Temple.

Puzzle Solution

Puzzle SolutionThe right answer is A. Below you can see the square as a result of B, C and D combination.

B C

D

Puzzle SolutionThe right answer is 22.

Puzzle SolutionThe right answer is B.

Puzzle SolutionThe right answer is 2.During the 1st weighting the explorer will put 3 metal bars on each scale pan. If the pans are balanced then the gold bar is the one not on the pans.Otherwise, the explorer will take the lighter 3 bars group and puts one metal bar on each scale pan.Following a similar procedure, if the pans are balanced then the gold bar is the one not on the pans.Otherwise the lighter one is the golden bar.