On page 4, Professor Übermann refers to his motorcycle driver as dummkopf. This is German for "idiot".

Also on page 4, Sophia shouts, "Joyeuse fantasia!" and is met with shouts of and "Cest une copaine! Elle connait la fantasia!" from the approaching Berber riders. These exclamations are French for "Happy fantasia!" and "She's a friend! She knows the fantasia!" Fantasia is a traditional horsemanship exhibition performed during festivals in northern Africa. Berbers are an ethnic group of northern Africa.

On page 5, one of the riders refers to Indy and Sophia as mes amis. This is French for "my friends".

Habib Ourzaza tells Indy that the Germans are digging at Moulay Idriss, a holy site where non-believers are not to enter.

On page 5, Habib says "exactement". This is French for "exactly".

On page 6, Habib says, "Voila...le bosch!" This is French for "There you go...the Germans!" Bosch is a derogatory French term for Germans.

On page 6, the superstitious Arab workers at the dig site shout "Chuba!" when they see what they think is an evil eye in the flames of their camp fire. I have been unable to determine the meaning of this word in Arabic, but it presumably is meant to be something like "evil eye".

On page 7, "Wass gibt?", "Nein!", "Mein gott!", and "Gott sei dank" are German for "What's going on?", "No!", "My god!", and "Thank God", respectively.

Übermann refers to Indy as "Illinois Chones" on page 7.

On page 9, Indy says, "Allez-y, Habib!" Allez-y is a French term for "go ahead".

As Indy and Sophie take off in the balloon, Habib says, "Bon voyage, chers amis! Allah be with you!" This is French for "Have a good trip, dear friends! Allah be with you!" "Allah" is the Arabic word for "God".

On page 10, Sophie wonders why Al-Jabbar would have a hydrogen balloon, saying they are dangerous, inflammable relics. While hydrogen is more flammable than the other leading gas for balloons, helium, it's not accurate for her to refer to hydrogen balloons as relics. Hydrogen is still utilized in many gas balloon competitions and events, especially in Europe. Some researchers also now say that the infamous Hindenburg zeppelin disaster was not caused by hydrogen as the primary factor, but the dope-impregnated canvas skins of 1930’s airships which were chemically similar to the rocket fuel used by the space shuttle’s solid boosters, and even the metal girders of
the Hindenburg's inner framework were coated with a highly flammable substance.

The shergi wind spoken of by Sophia is an easterly or southeasterly wind originating from the Sahara Desert, which blows across Morocco and is hot and dry, bringing extremely high temperatures, often 104 °F during the day. The shergi wind typically occurs after passing over the Atlas Mountains.

On page 12, Kerner shouts, "Verdammt!" as his vehicle flies off a cliff. This is German for "Damn it!"

    Indy and Sophia land on Crete and make their way to the Palace of Knossos and begin to search for the famed Labyrinth, which Indy skeptically remarks was the alleged home of the minotaur, put there by King Midas, the son of Zeus. Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. Knossos is a Bronze Age archeological site from the Minoan civilization. It is known in Greek mythology as the site of an underground labyrinth hosting the minotaur, a being with the body of a very large man and the head of a bull. Indy misspeaks when he says it was King Midas who imprisoned the minotaur; it was King Minos who did it and was the son of Zeus. Zeus was the king of the gods of ancient Greek mythology.

    Indy previously visited Knossos in 1936 in "The Grecian Earn", where he met a hoaxed minotaur. Despite this, page 209 of the novelization states that his current visit is his first to Knossos.

On page 15, Sophia comes upon the "famous mural". This is the "bull leaping fresco" now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. Heraklion is the capital city of Crete.
Bull leaping fresco from Knossos	Bull leaping fresco in this issue.

On page 17, Indy shoots and injures a Nazi thug who has fatally injured Sternhart in the labyrinth and the thug shouts "Verteufel!" This is another German term for "Damn it!"

     On page 19, Indy refers to two of the Germans he's fighting as Fritz and Hansi. These are both somewhat common German names, which Indy uses here as somewhat derogatory nicknames. "Fritz" in particular was used that way for German troops by Allied forces in the WWI through WWII years. In the novelization, Sophia uses the "Fritz" name on a German diver who performs a quick eyeball scout of the Atlantean ruins.

     "Was passiert?" and "Jawhohl, Hansi!" are German for "What's happening?" and "Yes, Hansi!"

Sternhart's diary identifies Crete as the greater colony of Atlantis and Thera the lesser. Thera is a smaller island of about 28 square miles which is more commonly known now as Santorini, long considered a candidate for the historical legends of Atlantis itself.

Indy enters sunken Atlantis through an undersea cavern that glows with light "like Capri's Blue Grotto." The Blue Grotto is an underwater cavern on the coast of the Italian island, Capri. Indy seems to ascribe the glow to phosphorescence, but the Blue Grotto's light comes from sunlight that shines through an underwater cavity, reflecting back up through the water below the cavern, giving it the captivating blue glow for which it is known.

In the comic, Kerner's U-boat is U-17. In the game, it is U-41. Both were the names of actual German submarines active at this time, but the sub depicted here looks similar to the Type IXA, as the U-41 was. The U-17 was a Type IIB, with a very different looking conning tower. See the game study below for more on the U-41.

Indiana Jones The Fate of Atlantis Video game Story by Hal Barwood & Noah Falstein Developed and published by LucasArts 1992

Characters appearing or mentioned in the computer game, not in the comic book adaptation

old beggar

Khalid Al-Hazzan (knife thrower)

food seller

Alain Trottier

man in gray suit

man in blue suit

Mrs. Trottier (mentioned only)

Kareem

Khalid Al-Hazzan

U-41 commander

U-41 crew

guard on U-41

Didja Notice?

In Algiers, Indy remarks to himself, "Ah, Algeria." This is a callback to Indy saying "Ah, Venice," a couple of times in the city of Venice, Italy in The Last Crusade. Algiers is the capital city of Algeria.

Many in the Algiers marketplace refer to Indy as effendi. This is a title of respect in the Middle East.

Pasted up on a wall of the marketplace is an Arabic advertisement for Elliot's Rose Water. This is a fictitious brand. It may be a nod to the character of Eliot Rosewater in several of the novels of author Kurt Vonnegut.

In Monte Carlo, Indy briefly speaks to a man in a blue suit, and then the man takes his leave, saying "bon soir". This is French for "good evening".

When Trottier asks Indy to confirm his interest in Atlantis by answering what material Atlanteans used to make devices for searching for orichalcum, he answers "Amber," which Trottier confirms. Trottier reveals that this information is contained in Plato's lost dialog (the Hermocrates, recovered by Indy and Sophie in "The Fate of Atlantis" Part 2). Historically, there has been one fringe scholarly theory that speculated on amber as a possibility for the mysterious orichalcum's identity, but otherwise is rarely mentioned even in Atlantean research circles.

In the novelization, the knife thrower is named Khalid Al-Hazzan.

Al-Jabbar offers a number of possible trade objects for other items in Indy's possession: a baseball allegedly signed by Lou Gehrig (Gehrig [1903-1941] was a professional baseball player for the New York Yankees from 1923–1939); a voodoo doll carved from trees in the Black Forest (the Black Forest is a large, forested mountain range in Germany); a little red wagon that once belonged to Rudyard Kipling (Kipling [1865–1936] was an English journalist, poet and fiction writer); a white cane touched by Queen Victoria (Queen Victoria was the ruler of the United Kingdom from 1837-1901); a bar of soap that's 99+⁴⁴⁄₁₀₀% pure (a joking reference to Ivory Soap); a gold buckle that was allegedly a gift to Queen Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII [c. 204–176 BC] was the last pharaoh of Egypt.

At the nomad camp, Indy is greeted with "Salaam, effendi." This is a traditional Arabic greeting meaning, "Peace, friend."

In the labyrinth, Indy and Sophia find busts of Zeus, Apollo, and Ares. Zeus, king of the Greek Olympian gods, has been mentioned previously. Apollo and Ares are the gods of the sun and the god war, respectively. 

At one point in the labyrinth, a wall engraving is seen that is actually a version of the LucasArts logo used from 1992-2005. LucasArts was the developer of this game.    In the novelization, Sophia identifies the glyph as the Atlantean symbol for happiness.
LucasArts engraving in labyrinth	LucasArts logo

Kerner's U-boat is U-41. There was an actual German U-boat with this designation at this time, launched in January 1939. A Type IXA submarine, it looked much like the one depicted in the game, though PopApostle is unable to confirm the "fish with boxing gloves" mascot painted on the conning tower.    In the novelization, the U-41 also has the name Orogeny. "Orogeny" is a geologic term for the process of the formation of mountains. The Orogeny has an emblem of a triangular volcano emitting a curl of smoke instead of the boxing fish.
U-41	Type IXA submarine

Amerikaner and Amerikanischer are German terms for "American". Amerikanischer schwein is "American pig".

Aboard the sub, Indy comes across a few control levers labeled flugeldufel, ausgeschnitzel, and krauskefarben. These appear to be nonsense German words.

The torpedo set before the firing tube of the sub has been painted with the name "Heidi".

Indy finds a plumber's helper on the sub and uses its shaft to replace a broken lever on the sub controls. In the U.S. a plumber's helper is more commonly known as a plunger.

    Distracting the guard from Indy sneaking around behind him, Sophia tells him that he looks like William the Conqueror. William (c. 1028–1087) was Duke of Normandy and the first Norman king of England as William I.

    Sophia also pretends to perform a psychic reading on the guard, using what seem to be film and book descriptions. She mentions the guard soon spending a night at the opera (1935 Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera), a house being carried away by a tornado (The Wizard of Oz, though the film itself was not released until August 1939; maybe she's referring to the 1900 book), and You Can't Go Home Again (a 1940 book).

At one point, Indy asks Sophia if she knows how to run the submarine and she retorts, "I'm a spiritualist, not a navigator!" This may be a nod to Star Trek's Dr. McCoy, who was fond of saying "I'm a doctor, not a [fill in the blank]!"

Notes from the computer game novelization by Dale Dassel (pages 144-267 roughly cover the events of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis #3)

Summary of this portion of the novelization

Sophia attempts a deep-sea dive to the Atlantis ruins. Her descent toward the supposed site of Atlantis becomes an intense inward trial, filled with doubt, symbolic voices, and fear of self-deception. The catastrophic failure of the dive, later revealed to be a vivid dream, serves as a warning rather than a discovery: Atlantis will not be found through blind faith alone, and Sophia must confront the possibility that her obsession may destroy her. This moment tempers her certainty without extinguishing it.

The narrative then shifts to Crete and the ruins of Knossos, where myth and archaeology begin to converge. Through murals, solar and lunar alignments, and the Horns of Consecration, Indy’s analytical skills complement Sophia’s intuition. Together, they activate an ancient mechanism that reveals the entrance to the Labyrinth, forcing Indy to acknowledge that myth can be grounded in historical reality. The discovery represents a fragile harmony between belief and evidence—one that is immediately threatened.

Inside the Labyrinth, wonder gives way to danger. The trio’s exploration underscores the Labyrinth’s symbolic purpose as a path toward enlightenment rather than a mere trap, but Nazi forces violently interrupt this journey. Indy is shot and presumed dead, Sophia is captured, and their juvenile guide Melina is abandoned, shattering any sense of victory.

Aboard the German U-boat, Sophia sees the submerged ruins of Atlantis firsthand. Towering pillars, sunken structures, and the vast chasm of the city confirm that Atlantis is real—but the discovery is hollow. Sophia’s triumph is poisoned by grief, guilt, and the realization that the lost city represents a colossal human tragedy, not a romantic ideal. Atlantis transforms a dream of glory into a sobering testament to loss, forcing both Sophia and Indy to reckon with the cost of belief fulfilled. 

Characters appearing or mentioned in this novel, not in the video game

Algerian boy

souk shopkeepers

Abdul Aziz

Torsten Fleischer

Karl Sankt

Prisha

Tin Hinan (historical figure, deceased)

Nat-Hal-Bar (mentioned only)

Tarak Ben-Kenobi

Izem

bulldozer driver

Dmitri Valsamidis

Melina Nikitis

Melina's mother (mentioned only)

Captain Heinrich Wilhelm

Schulte

Leutnant Holtz

Horst

Adler (German soldier identity taken on by Indy to infiltrate the Atlantean scouting trip)

Hauptmann Schelker

Didja Know?

This book is a fan-written novelization of the game and comic book and was released online for free from 2010-2013. This piece by Dale Dassel is generally held in high regard for its quality of writing and research.

Didja Notice?

CHAPTER 11: DESERT SANDS

On page 145 "Yaa jamila!" is Arabic for "Oh beautiful!"

Also on page 145, souk is another word for a bazarre.

On page 146, the Tassili Mountains are an actual mountain range in Algeria.

Page 146 states that some researchers believed Carthage was a replica of the city of Atlantis, while French archaeologist Félix Berlioux declared that he had found the Lost City in the foothills of the Moroccan Atlas range, between Casablanca and Agadir. These are both actual theories of the 19th Century. Carthage was an ancient port city of northern Africa, in what is now Tunisia.

Indy marvels it could have been a page from The Arabian Nights, as he and Sophia stroll through the bustling Casbah, the original walled city founded on the former Roman settlement of Icosium. Icosium was a Phoenician and Punic settlement in Algeria that became a Roman colony. The modern day city of Algiers is built upon it. The Arabian Nights refers to the Arabic story collection One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights in the Western world), believed to have originated around the 8th Century AD.

On page 147, Indy spies the twin domes of the Ketchaoua Mosque. (Image from Wikipedia.)

The Mamluke era mentioned on page 147 lasted from 1250-1517 in Egypt and Syria.

The Sultan Hassan Mosque in Cairo and the Djemaa-Djedid Mosque in Algiers also mentioned on page 147 are both real world mosques.

On page 148, "Salaam alaykum," is a traditional Arabic greeting meaning "Peace be upon you," and the vendor's return greeting to Indy of "Wa alaykum us-salaam," means "And upon you be peace."

On page 151, Omar shows Sophie a comb in his booth that he claims once belonged to Mata Hari. Mata Hari was an exotic dancer in France who was convicted and executed as a spy for Germany in WWI. Indy met and had an affair with her in Paris in 1916 in "The Mata Hari Affair".

Omar's use of "Al-Almaan" on page 151 seems to be a caustic use of "noble and wise man" in reference to Nazis.

On the map shown to he and Sophie by Omar on page 152 of the Nazis' dig site in the Atlas Mountains, Indy sees that once again "X" marks the spot, despite his teachings. Indy has told his students on more than one occasion (notably in "Tomb of the Gods" Part 2 and The Last Crusade) that "X" never marks the spot.

Indy's parting utterance to Omar as he and Sophie leave the vendor's booth is "Waalidatuka
shar mutah." This means "Your parents are evil."

On page 155, Indy says to the swordsman who assists him and Sophie against the knife thrower, "Anta maahir ma’a hatha as-sayf," and the swordsman responds, "Afwan." These are Arabic for "You are skilled at this," and "You are welcome," respectively.

Indy recognizes the flowing blue robes of Abdul Aziz as those of the Tuaregs. The Tuareg people are nomads of the Sahara, respected for their warrior skills and the art of swordplay.

The paragraph about modern history in Algeria on pages 155-156 is roughly accurate.

Aziz says about Sophia, "Sha’arukee halwa, yaa amiratee al-baydaa’ al-jamila," which Indy translates to her simply as "He said your hair is pretty." An actual translation of the sentence is hard to make, as it seems to be transliterated rather than written in actual Arabic words. It seems to be something like "You hair is sweet, my beautiful white princess."

CHAPTER 12: THE PEOPLE OF THE VEIL

Indy, Sophia, and Aziz eat at the Dar Maghreb cafe. Dar Maghreb is Arabic for "House of Morocco".

Aziz informs his new friends that he is a member of the Algerian People’s Party. This was a real world political party in Algeria from 1937-1946, though it operated clandestinely from 1938-1946 when it was pursued by the ruling French authorities, though the party's opposition to France was largely peaceful.

Aziz tells Indy and Sophie the German dig site is near Bou Saâda. This is a real world town at the foot of the Algerian Atlas mountains.

When Aziz sees the medallion of Sophie's necklace, he says, shocked, "Wallahee..." This is an Arabic term meaning "By God".

Seeing the medallion, Aziz says the face on it represents a jinn known as the Great Deceiver. A jinn (or djinn) is a supernatural being of Arab folklore, also known as a genie. Normally, "Great Deceiver" is a term used in the Abrahamic religions to describe the Devil himself, rather than a jinn or a lesser demon.

On page 161, Aziz tells Indy and Sophie they will go into Tinariwen to rid his country of the Nazis. Tinariwen means "deserts" in the Tamasheq language of the Tuareg people.

On page 162, Torsten stammers, "J-jawohl, Herr Oberst!" This is German for "Yes sir, Colonel." Later on the next page, ja is a shortened form of jawohl, "yes".

On page 163, Kerner snaps at the courier, “Was?” This is German for "What?"

On page 164, Kerner executes Al-Hazzan with a single shot to the head from his Luger P08 pistol. The Luger is a pistol design first patented by Austrian Georg Luger in 1900.

As Indy and company ride across the Sahara to the Tuareg village, he is reminded of the Utah desert, where his dad relocated them to continue his Grail studies after Mrs. Jones' death, and reflects that in the years that followed, the gulf between estranged father and son grew as vast as the desert that now surrounded him. But they had mended the bitter past recently. Young Indy's life in Utah was glimpsed in "The Cross of Coronado" and "The Phantom of the Klondike", while an adult Indy and his father reconciled with each other in The Last Crusade.

On page 166, Sophie finds her attraction to Aziz has her feeling like Agnes Ayres to Aziz's Valentino. This refers to the 1921 silent romantic film The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayers.

Also on page 166, in the Islamic world, a marabout is said to be a descendant of Muhammad and a religious leader and teacher.

On page 167, the Sahel in Africa is the biogeographic transition zone between the Sudanian savannas to the south and the drier Sahara Desert to the north.

The Tuareg village's marabout, Prisha, is said to be a descendant of Tin Hinan. Tin Hinan was a 4th Century Tuareg queen, said in legend to be the symbolic mother of the Tuareg people.

On page 169, Amenokal is a title for the highest Tuareg chief.

On page 170, Bahana is a Sanskrit/Hindi term meaning splendor, light, or brilliance.

Also on page 170, a tikka is an impermanent Hindu mark on the forehead at the point of the third eye (spiritual eye).

Prisha tells Sophia that her tikka, nearly identical to the medallion of Nur-Ab-Sal on Sophia's necklace, is in honor of Nat-Hal-Bar, the counterpart of the heathen Nur-Ab-Sal. Like Nur-Ab-Sal, Nat-Hal-Bar is a fictitious deity. The name is partially based on the name of the co-creator of the Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis computer game, Hal Barwood.

CHAPTER 13: LOST OUTPOST

On page 174, a cheche is a desert headscarf, while a djellaba is an outer robe worn in the Maghreb region of North Africa.

Sophia wears an abaya on page 175. This is a robe-like dress worn by many Muslim women.

With the morning sun glowing behind her, Indy briefly sees Sophia as Brigid, the pagan goddess of eternal light. Brigid is a goddess in the mythology of pre-Christian Ireland, associated with healing, protection, poetry, and wisdom.

On page 176, Aziz carries a takoba. This is a particular type of sword carried by Tuareg in the western Sahel.

The description of the Sahara Desert on page 177 is somewhat exaggerated, especially in regards to the difference in day and night temperatures ("blistering highs of 120 degrees in the afternoon, to bone-chilling sub-zero after sundown"). Like typical deserts, temperatures tend to be 20-35 degrees cooler at night.

On page 180, the French Foreign Legion is an arm of the French Army in which foreign nationals may serve.

The Arab Foreign Legion soldier is named Tarak Ben-Kenobi. This is an in-joke to the Star Wars franchise character Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi.

Indy threatens to tell Governor le Beau about the Foreign Legion soldier who is open to bribery, frightening the trooper off. This refers to the governor of Algeria at the time, the French colonial administrator Georges le Beau (1879-1962).

    On page 185, Indy and Sophia discover a relief carved in the wall of the underground chamber at the Nazi dig site. Indy recognizes it as Amarna style art depicting two dark haired women and Aten, the sun disk of Ra. Amarna art is a style adopted in the Amarna Period during the reign of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten from 1351–1334 BC. The Aten was the disk of the sun, an aspect of Ra the sun god in ancient Egyptian religion.

    Sophia claims, through her connection with Nur-Ab-Sal, the two women depicted in the relief are the Sisters of the Light, the gatekeepers of Atlantis and twin daughters of Poseidon and Cleito. Poseidon was the god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes in Ancient Greek mythology. Cleito was a mortal human woman with whom Poseidon fell in love and sired five sets of male twins. As Indy says here, Poseidon did not father any daughters.

On page 186, Waffenrock is a German term for a military uniform.

On page 187, Torsten holds a Mauser HSc. This is a semi-automatic pistol manufactured from 1940-1977. Since this story takes place in 1939, Torsten should not have one yet.

The Germans have tracked Indy and Sophia to the chamber by their footprints, with Torsten commenting, "Araber tragen keine Stiefel, meine amerikanischen Freunde." This is German for "Arabs don’t wear boots, my American friends."

On page 188, Kerner shouts "Ruhe!" to Torsten. This is German for "Quiet!" He then says "Auf Wiedersehen," to Indy. This is "Goodbye."

On page 189, "Du da!" and "Ich habe nur Kerners Befehle befolgt," are German for "You there!" and "I was just following Kerner's orders."

Also on page 189, "Salamu aleykum!" is Arabic for "Peace be upon you!"

    On page 190, "Zu den Waffen! Wir werden angegriffen! Beeilung!" and "Die Araber entkommen! Zu den Wagen! Haltet sie auf, bevor sie das Tor erreichen!" are German for "To arms! We are under attack! Hurry!" and "The Arabs are escaping! To the wagons! Stop them before they reach the gate!"

   "Yalla! Yalla!" is Arabic for "Come on! Come on!” and "Imshee!" for "Take off!"

The custom halftrack vehicle Indy and his friends escape the Nazi camp in is labeled Volkswagenwerk. This is the company that makes Volkswagen vehicles (Volkswagenwerk means "Volkswagen Factory").

On page 191, "Kübelwagen" most likely refers to a Volkswagen Kübelwagen, manufactured from 1940-1945.

Aziz finds a Karabiner in the half-track to fight back against the pursuing Germans. Karabiners are a line of carbine weapons manufactured by Mauser. Carbines are long guns with a shortened barrel.

Some of the German soldiers ride BMW motorcycles in pursuit of the half-track.

On page 192, Sophia shoots at red 50-gallon barrels marked Lebensgefahr! Entflammbar! This is German for Danger! Flammable!

On page 193, Sophia asks Indy, in the midst of danger and adventure, "You call this archeology?" This is a callback to Indy's father saying the same thing to him in The Last Crusade.

On page 193, Indy and Sophia prepare to board a balloon on the Gouraya peninsula for their trip to Greece. The Gouraya peninsula is an actual landform jutting into the Mediterranean Sea in the town of Gouraya, Algeria.

The hydrogen balloon is said to be a Rozière-type. A Rozière balloon is a hybrid type balloon that has separate chambers for a non-heated lifting gas, hydrogen or helium, as well as hot air. Indy reflects that he used this type as surveillance platforms in the war. This was not seen in the televised episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, though he and his pal Remy did escape from a German military camp with a captured German colonel in a balloon in "The Kidnapping".

On page 193, Béjaïa is an actual Mediterranean port city in Algeria.

On page 194, al anesah means "miss" in Arabic, as in "Miss Sophia".

On page 195, Aziz says to Sophia, "Sha’ar ahmar-ma ajmal!" This is Arabic for "What beautiful red hair!"

CHAPTER 14: DIVING FOR ATLANTIS

On page 197, Dmitri's boat, the Paradise Lost, has a faded "Port of Kalymnos" legend painted on it. Kalymnos is one of the Greek islands. The boat's name is likely inspired by the 17th century poet John Milton's epic blank verse poem Paradise Lost.

Page 198 reveals that Sophia does not know how to swim.

On page 200, the brass yoke of the diving suit that Indy places over Sophia's head is stamped with Xyth Pio 1899. Xyth Pio was a factory on Kalymnos that produced diving equipment for many years.

On page 205, Indy shouts down from the balloon to the boat captain, "Kali mera!" This is Greek for "Good day!"

CHAPTER 15: HORNS OF CONSECRATION

On page 208, Kephala Hill is the location on Crete where the Palace of Knossos was built.

Sir Arthur Evans is mentioned on page 208 as restoring the Minoan palace of Knossos. Evans (1851-1941) was a British archaeologist known for the study of the Aegean civilization of the Bronze Age. Though the Knossos dig was started in 1877 by a Greek businessman, Evans later bought the land through private funding and began new excavations in 1900.

The legend of Theseus slaying the minotaur at Knossos with the help of Ariadne on page 208 is part of Greek mythology.

As stated on page 209, the Minoan civilization is usually considered Europe's oldest, with older known cultures of the continent not considered large and advanced enough to be considered "civilizations". The Minoan civilization is considered to have ended when the surviving inhabitants of Crete fled the island to the Greek mainland after a tremendous earthquake decimated it around 1700 BC, as described here.

The Mackenzie mentioned on page 209 is Duncan Mackenzie (1861-1934), a Scottish archeologist who assisted Evans in the excavation of Knossos.

As stated above in the comic book study, Indy previously visited Knossos in 1936 in "The Grecian Earn". Despite this, page 209 here states that his current visit is his first to Knossos.

Indy's definition of pithoi on page 210 as clay vases used for storage of grain, oil, and fish is accurate.

On page 211, the Kairatos is an actual watercourse on Crete, once supplying water via aqueducts to the palace at Knossos.

The prominent Horns of Consecration sculpture at the Palace of Knossos mentioned on page 212 is an actual structure there, but they are a restoration, not the originals.

Evans' excavations at Knossos ceased in 1931, just as stated here.

The Pillar Hall mentioned on page 213 is an actual structure at the palace.

The South Propylaea on page 215 is an actual structure at the palace.

On page 216, Hathor was a cow goddess of love, beauty, and music in the Ancient Egyptian religion and Mount Jutkas is an actual mountain on Crete. The rest of Indy's commentary on the cross-pollination between Crete and Ancient Egypt is accurate.

Indy's rumination about the Minoan "great bull in the sky" called Hēliakos is not something I have been able to confirm.

After Indy figures where to dig in the Knossos land plot through the use of a survey transit, Sophia jokingly scratches a pair of crossed lines in the dust with the heel of her boot, saying, "X marks the spot, right?" To which Indy smiles wryly and responds, "Yeah, sometimes. Let’s get to work." Of course, Indy famously said "X never ever marks the spot" in The Last Crusade, and has been proven wrong a couple of times.

After digging and lifting away a stone slab, Indy and Sophia find a small bronze box Indy calls a larnax. A larnax is a small closed box or "ash-chest" used to hold human remains.

On page 220, Plato's lost dialogue states that the gates of the Atlantean kingdom opened with the aid of a Sunstone, "if sunset made the tall horns red." Sophia is impatient about waiting until sunset to see if the Horns of Consecration turn red, and Melina suggests, "Maybe we could paint them red, like Alice in Wonderland?" This refers to a scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, in which three playing cards are painting white roses found on a bush red, because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses.

CHAPTER 16: LABYRINTH

As the chapter opens, Indy and the others enter the labyrinth below Knossos, with him wondering how every archeologist before now could have missed it. Of course, Indy himself was in the labyrinth in the aforementioned "The Grecian Earn".

    Indy ruminates, if the myth of the labyrinth hidden under the ruins of Knossos was true, then he had to accept that the lost city of Atlantis might be every bit as real. And if Atlantis, what else? The entire pantheon of Olympian gods? The fountain of youth? Time-travel?

    Of course, Indy will become acquainted with time travel much later in his life in The Dial of Destiny. 

On page 228, Indy tells Sophia and Melina how he got his bullwhip. It was made for him by an elderly braider named David Morgan in Chicago in the early 1920s from kangaroo hide. According to Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide, he obtained the whip in 1922. The name "David Morgan" is from the name of the braider who made Indy's whips (from kangaroo hide) for the original trilogy of films.

When Sophia remarks that the whip doesn't look very dangerous, Indy points out the scar on his chin. This was caused by a lion tamer's bullwhip he tried to use in "The Cross of Coronado".

On page 229, on the walls of the inner labyrinth, Indy and company see how ancient earthquakes had shattered the Neogenic strata, compressing the limestone into the broken tunnels around them. "Neogenic" refers to the Neogene geologic period from 23 million years ago to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period 2.5 million years ago.

Sophia remarks on the cave she and the others find themselves in as possibly Plato’s cave, where shadows become reality. This refers to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, where prisoners mistake shadows on a wall for true reality, thus representing humanity's limited perception; the shadows are mere reflections of real objects, and the ultimate reality lies in the world of "Forms".

Indy's explanation of the Knossos Labyrinth and other labyrinths in general on pages 231-232 is roughly accurate.

The psychic vision Sophia has on page 232 sounds like the 1941 Battle of Crete, when German forces invaded and occupied the island during WWII.

On page 235, a "labrys" is a double-bitted axe.

Linear A glyphs, just as Indy explains on page 235, are an undeciphered writing system of the Minoan civilization.

Also on page 235, Nandi is the bull-mount of the Hindu deity Shiva. The "rest of the legend" that Indy claims for Nandi on page 236, does not appear to be correct. I can find no reference to Nandi cheating at a game of dice.

Sophia claims Linear B is Atlantean script and she is able to read it. In the glyphs they find in the labyrinth, she says Atlantis is called Atlunus. As far as I can tell, this is a fictitious alternate name for the mythical city.

Page 239 mentions Tarzan and Jane. This refers to the world-famous character of Tarzan created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912, a British boy who was lost in the African jungle and raised by apes; he was known to swing through the jungle trees on vines. After growing up and encountering civilization, he went on to marry the beautiful Jane Porter.

When Sophia sees the model of Atlantis on page 240, she breathes, "The city of yesterday’s forever..." This would seem to be a nod by the author to the title of Marvel Comics' The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones #18 from 1984, in which another lost city, Ra-Lundi, is found by Indy and Marion Ravenwood in the Himalayas.

CHAPTER 17: CIRCUIT OF THE OUTER RING

On page 248, Amnissos is a Bronze Age settlement on Crete that served as sea port to the palace at Knossos.

Indy and Melina emerge from the labyrinth through the Cave of Eileithyia. The cave is revered in Greek mythology as the birthplace and sanctuary of Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth and midwifery.

On page 249, Iraklion is another name for the aforementioned Heraklion.

As Kerner and his men approach Indy in his confiscated Nazi uniform, Indy snaps a sharp Sieg Heil salute while crossing the fingers on his other hand to jinx the show of fealty. Indy had done the same in front of Hitler himself in Germany in the novelization of The Last Crusade. Sieg Heil is German for "Hail Victory" and the salute involves extending the right arm with a straight hand from the chest.

On page 253, Waffenamt is German for "Ordnance Office".

Übermann remarks that Sophia shares the same fascination with the occult as Reichsführer Himmler. Reichsführer is German for "Reich leader". "Himmler" refers to Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945), the commander of the SS who was obsessed with the occult and German mythology.

Page 254 states that the U-41 submarine was constructed at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen. AG Weser was a major German ship builder from 1872-1983.

Here in the novelization, the commander of U-41 is Captain Heinrich Wilhelm (though also referred to as Oberleutnant [First Lieutenant] and Kapitänleutnant [Lieutenant Commander]). The real U-41 was commanded by Oberleutnant Gustav-Adolf Mugler for its entire active career (it launched in January 1939 and was sunk in battle in February 1940).

On page 254, Captain Wilhelm lifts his Kriegsmarine cap to wipe sweat off his brow. Kriegsmarine is German for "War Navy".

On page 254, Wilhelm looks through the clear Plexiglas window of the sub. Plexiglas is a brand of transparent engineering plastic often used in place of glass in construction where toughness is important. It has been in use since the early 1930s.

Kerner plays Wagner's Parzival on a phonograph aboard the sub. Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer known for his operas; he wrote Parsifal in 1882, based on Parzival, the epic chivalric romance about the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail by Wolfram von Eschenbach and the French chivalric romance Perceval ou le Conte du Graal (Perceval, the Story of the Grail) by the 12th-century troubadour Chrétien de Troyes. 

Wilhelm remarks that he was appointed to Kerner's mission by Großadmiral Raeder. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder (1876-1960) led the Kriegsmarine for the first half of WWII.

On page 255, funker is German for "radio operator".

On page 256, "Ja, Herr Oberst," is German for "Yes, Colonel."

On page 257, "Gott im Himmel!", "Anblasen!",  and "Schnell, schnell!" are German for "God in Heaven!", "Blow it!", and "Quickly, quickly!"

On page 258, when the ocean outside the sub starts glowing, Wilhelm wonders aloud, "Was ist das...?" This is German for "What is that...?"

On page 259, "Mutter Gottes!" is German for "Mother of God!"

Seeing the ruins of Atlantis on the ocean floor, Sophia realizes that the city had been built around a volcano, just like Pompeii, and had been destroyed by the earthquakes and fire caused by a volcanic eruption. Pompeii was a city in Italy that was buried under meters of volcanic ash and pumice after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

On page 267, danke is German for "Thank you."

Memorable Dialog

Ah, Algeria.mp3

I think you should volunteer.mp3

you're dead meat.mp3

I hope it's a hose.mp3

I thought you were going to leave me in there.mp3

so the legend of a labyrinth hidden under the ruins of Knossos is true.mp3

some date, huh?.mp3

you look great in this light.mp3

a narrow crawlspace.mp3

down, you simple ape.mp3

Jones was a better man than I thought to tolerate her.mp3

Nur-Ab-Sal is not amused.mp3

don't get any ideas, buster.mp3

hey you're not Jones.mp3

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