The Cave of Wonders is a location in the animated film Aladdin. It is a hidden cavern filled with immense riches and powerful artifacts, most notably, a magic lamp. The cave can only be entered by the “Diamond in the Rough”, an individual whose worth lies far within. Those who attempt to enter, otherwise, will be warned once and killed almost instantly if they ignore the warning. The entrance to the cave is protected by a spiritual sand guardian in the shape of a tiger's head.

In the original film, the cave is visited at the very beginning by Jafar, Iago, and a thief named Gazeem. The location of the cave was revealed using a mystical golden Scarab Beetle, which also helped form the cave. Jafar orders Gazeem to go inside the Cave to retrieve the magical lamp. The Cave's tiger head warns the visitors that only one worthy may enter, referred to as the Diamond in the Rough. Jafar and Gazeem don't quite understand what he means, so Jafar decides to order Gazeem to go in again. Gazeem hesitantly makes one step inside. When everything seems to be safe, the Cave suddenly roars and violently shuts its mouth, killing Gazeem and vanishing back into the sand, leaving the scarab halves to roll down the hill as its spirit advises that the "Diamond in the Rough" must be searched. Jafar then realizes he must find the Diamond in the Rough.

Back at the palace, Jafar takes the Sultan's mystic blue diamond ring in order to power his device. The device shows just who the Diamond in the Rough is: the cunning street rat Aladdin. Jafar orders the guards to capture Aladdin and take him to the Palace's dungeon. There Jafar, disguised as an ugly elderly beggar, takes Aladdin and Abu to the Cave. Aladdin identifies himself to the Cave, which allows him to enter, but warns him not to touch anything except for the lamp.

Aladdin and Abu successfully enter the cave, where they are tempted by the vast Forbidden Treasure filled with gold coins and jewels a-plenty, where Abu almost grabs some of the treasure before Aladdin remembers the warning not to touch them and stops Abu. They come across a Magic Carpet, who offers to help and escorts them to the cave's far back chamber where the lamp is located. As Aladdin scales a tall rock formation surrounded by water to retrieve the lamp, Abu spots a large ruby held by a monkey idol, which attracts him and gets him overcome with temptation.

Despite Carpet's efforts to stop him and Aladdin frantically yelling to stop the moment he retrieves the lamp, Abu seizes the ruby, and the Cave angrily announces that Aladdin and Abu will both die for ignoring its warning. Abu sheepishly puts the ruby back, but it's too late. The ruby and monkey idol both disintegrate into lava, which soon turns the cave's water into lava, then the entire cave fills itself with lava and flames as it collapses and destroys the rest of the Forbidden Treasure. Aladdin and Abu nearly escape with the help of Carpet, but are thrown down by Jafar, who thought he had stolen the lamp. The cave, after pained bellows, then dissolves with Aladdin, Abu, and Carpet trapped inside.

Inside the cave, it is revealed that Abu stole the lamp back from Jafar. Genie is released and frees them from their prison (also tricking Genie into granting a free wish in the process).

At the end of the film, the Cave of Wonders reforms when Genie launches Jafar's Lamp to its location with Jafar and Iago inside to endure 10,000 years of imprisonment.

Although the Cave of Wonders itself is unseen in The Return of Jafar, a statue of the Tiger God of the Cave of Wonders is seen in Abis Mal's lair and Jafar and Iago were seen in the desert the Cave is located in after somehow escaping from it.

In the series House of Mouse, the Cave seems to be transportation for Jafar and Iago.

In the episode "Donald's Lamp Trade", the cave's voice was heard calling Donald an infidel when he tried to make off with a crate of forbidden treasure. The cave itself was also featured in the sponsor at the end of the episode.

The Cave of Wonders appears in the Season 6 episode "Street Rats". Rather than being shaped like a tiger's head. The entrance is a doorway between two pillars, above the doorway is a stone shaped like a tiger's head.

In all versions of the Aladdin video game, the Cave of Wonders is featured as a level.

The Cave of Wonders also appears in Nasira's Revenge as a location, requiring the use of the Scarab to enter it.

The Cave makes an appearance as a location within the Agrabah world and is fought as a boss in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts coded. In the first game, Sora, Aladdin, Donald, and Goofy fight it after it was taken over by the Heartless and tried to destroy them. Once they destroy the dark power's source, which is located in his eyes (reached by climbing up its neck or by leaping onto its face when it's buried in the dirt), the guardian returns to being an entrance to the Cave of Wonders and continues to be so throughout the series. The tiger reacts neither to their entrance into the cave nor touching the treasure within the cave.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter the cave for treasure to buy Jafar's lamp from the peddler. Once again, the tiger does not object to their quest or entrance.

Throughout the Kingdom Hearts games, the Cave's guardian is mute. However, he speaks in the unaired "Agrabah" 2003 pilot, with Frank Welker reprising his role.

Abu and the game's protagonist visited the cave in search of the source of the mirages. They returned the treasure stolen by the Bogs to prevent the cave from collapsing, and then snuck their way up to a magic lamp, guarded by a pair of Monkey Idols like the one Abu stole the ruby from in the Movie, though this lamp turns out to be a mirage. After returning the Royal Geese to their pen and fighting off a group of Genie Bogs, Jasmine, Abu, and the protagonist returned to the Cave of Wonders and returned the lamps to their proper places, ridding Agrabah of the Mirages for good.

The Cave of Wonders was a backdrop for the stage at Aladdin's Oasis. During the Indiana Jones Summer of Hidden Mysteries event, the Cave of Wonders served as the setting for the "Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Stone Tiger" stunt show.

In World of Color, the Cave of Wonders appears as part of the background in the Aladdin sequence's rendition of "A Whole New World".

In Fantasmic!, the cave is summoned by Jafar in an attempt to kill Mickey Mouse during Mickey's imprisonment. Inside the cave, Jafar transforms into a snake and attempts to eat Mickey, who then finds the lamp whom he believes is the Genie's, but the lamp ends up transforming Jafar into a genie.

At DisneyQuest, the Cave of Wonders served as a gateway into the Explore Zone, which was home to the Aladdin Virtual Magic Carpet attraction.

The Cave of Wonders is a location in both versions of Storybook Land Canal Boats, though the tiger head only appears in the Disneyland Paris version as the Disneyland incarnation was merely a retrofit of a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs based cavern.

See also

• Cave of Wonders (Aladdin 2019)