Forgotten Crypt

The Forgotten Crypt lies behind the tower of Karazhan, in the cemetery at Morgan's Plot.

The purpose of the crypt was originally unknown. Players theorized they may have been playground for developers, a testing site of sorts, an unfinished instance, or something else entirely. In vanilla World of Warcraft, the area could be accessed via dying close to the gate and running through it as a ghost, but this was changed in patch 2.0.1.

In patch 7.0.3, the Well of the Forgotten was made available, and in patch 7.3.0, the entire crypt was opened for all who solved an extremely difficult puzzle.

Many players suspected that the crypt was originally never fully implemented because of the mildly disturbing content, mainly the now infamous room of upside-down sinners, would've made World of Warcraft's ESRB rating become M for Mature. On January 24th, 2014, Blizzard community manager Bashiok responded to a post inquiring to the reasons the crypt was never used and provided some insights on Blizzard's design processes back during the days of its creation, stating the reason it was abandoned was more than likely that Blizzard simply changed their minds about using it.

Additionally, in a Reddit AMA in September 2018, John Staats answered a question about the intentions for the crypt. He stated that crypts were meant to be questing areas, but that it turned out they weren't needed, so they were never finished.

• Using WoW Map Viewer, you can see that the crypt runs under Tranquil Gardens Cemetery in Duskwood.
• Even though there's a wooden barrier separating the Well of the Forgotten from the rest of the crypt, warlocks can still get past it with Demonic Gateway.