The Official Aldorlea Games Forum

I have acquired Hirado and am searching for the ancient temple to fight the dreaded Djiin. Help!! Also, I assume I'll be able to go back after this and fight the ant king. . . also, so far none of the thieves have dropped a map to their den. So I guess I'll be able to go back and keep working on these quests?

To go to the Ancient Temple you have to backtrack all the way from Hirado's cave until you reach the central area of Sapphire Caves, from there take the only stairs going up and go around to the left side until you see a fireplace! Enter it and you will be at the entrance of the Ancient Temple!
Some maps that may help you:
viewtopic.php?f=58&t=1577#p14207
As for the side quests you will be able to complete them once you've defeated the Djinn!

I'm not sure what you mean by "central area" of the caves. I've worked my way all the way back to where I entered. . . Sigh. . .

You have to reach this area and take the corridor going north!

http://img2.yfrog.com/i/godown.jpg/

I am still just wandering in circles. I have found what looks like the spot in the screen shot in the reply previous to this one, but the corridor going north goes nowhere. . . just to an empty room with a bunch of barrels. Do I have to go back to all the lava parts?? That's the only area where I noticed any ladders. . . though how I get to the lava parts is beyond me right now.

This might be a bit too late to help you, if you have already found the ancient temple, i hope this will help others who got stuck at this part of game : you must first get to the place where hirado keep saying 'from here we need to go to the north'(can't really remember what he says ), then from this place you just keep searching for a path which heads north(around the eastern part of this place), where you'll then see two gates when you proceed on to the left, there you'll see a fireplace-liked 'hole', enter it. Just remember that you don't leave the place where hirado mentioned the instruction and try to get to the top most part of that place. Good luck!

Get out of the lava back to where the skeletons were. Just keep going up and Hirardo will talk.