To start this chain as alliance you need to do the following:
Head to feathermoon stronghold, go to Angelas Moonbreeze, who starts this chain with a quest aptly named "The Sunken Temple." As others have said, she's in the Feathermoon Stronghold (island off the coast of Feralas). She's in a building by the Inn, coords are 31,45.

This quest tells you to go talk to Marvon Rivetseeker. You'll find good ol' Marvon all by himself amongst some ruins in Tanaris. He's still at 52,45.

Ripped from thottbot for conveniences sake.

After you have activated 5 of the statues, jump all down in the water, except one. Regain your life and then activate the final statue. Been in a couple of instances where everybody jumps at same time. It took about 1400 of my hp hitting the ground, which was when I was lvl 51. That´s about 70% of my entire hp, considering that I was a fully buffed priest.

And for got sake, remember to click on the "giant statue", which appear in the middle of the pool, after you´ve killed the boss. Had to do it twice, becuase I forgot.

In order to get to this quest, you need to get to the altar (from the zone in to the instance, go right) and then clear all 6 of the top platforms (second from the left after you zone in, go downstairs, not up).

No point in guessing - Use this resource for this instance and for many of the others that exist. I found many of these maps to be quite exhaustive in both the diagram of the instance in question and in the location of mobs and drops. Enjoy :D

http://www.worldofwar.net/cartography/instances/atalhakkar.php

Edited, Sat Sep 10 00:43:25 2005

The container for the quest reward is this:

Hakkari Urn

For alliance, you have to go Feathermoon talk to Angele to get a quest, which ask u to talk to a goblin in Tanaris.

The temple is at the swamp of sorrows. Look at the Eastern part of the map. low left. there is a place called Stonard. Its horde and in the Swamp.

To get in the swamp go east from Duskwood

the posts above give some info but not enough...I started by going up the stairway into the circualr top chamber, decending to the balconies and killing off everything in each balcony...now looking down from the balconies is a huge area filled with dragon welpings and stuff that ive cleared out and killed Jammal'an. after which two huge dragons appeared (and i died and party disbanded).
anothe time we went in and did some of the lower balconies (to the 2:00 of instance opening) and died in there...
Do I need to kill all the dragons welpings etc.. or does the mini boss drop into the refuse chamber where the snakes , slugs are....Im sooo confused...please be more descriptive of how this quest is completely done...Im really getting sick of this low-drop instance

I did all the snakes (in what I thought was the right order) with my group today. I didn't complete this quest.

Do I personally need to activate the statues? Or did I just do them in the wrong order?

how do u get to the snakes? u guys talk of a stair but that doesnt help

How do you get to the snakes to click since they are up on top of the alters?

out of the container i got the following: Hakkari Shroud, Hakkari Breastplate, and Mark of Hakkar. yes i'm lazy and didn't link them, look it up!

A rogue can sneak in and complete "into the depths" easy enough, if you position yourself on the stairs correctly and are higher enough level to not insta-aggro the mobs nearby while you activate the altar.
However, completing this quest is more difficult.
You'll have to fight 2-3 elites to activate the snakes (check thottbot on this quest for the right order).
So either be 55+ or take another rogue or 2 in with you.

The sequence of the serpents (accurately described by Sealclubber) is S, N, SW, SE, NW, and NE. Did it wrong a couple of times before I read the post completely, and realized that I need to be looking over the water (facing south) which inverts the order.

Here's what I've discovered might help while doing this quest.

At the entrance to the instance, go to the first hall on the right (the left may take you to the other side of the same place, I don't know). This will take you to the lower level where the altar is. Clear the area near the altar so it can safely be used, and also clear the water, the remaining creatures around the ring on this level don't have to be cleared. Use the altar at this time. (naturally, this requires the circle)

Head back up to the entrance room, take the next hallway directly to the right of where you just came up from and you'll go up to the top ring where the snake statues are. Clear EVERYTHING for this setup. The first balcony you come to is the north balcony, which is second in the sequence. It's easier if you draw a circle on a piece of paper, or have a clock. The positions of the balconies can be correlated to the even times on a clock. 12, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. (the notation of actual compass directions given by Annathor also works). The sequence while facing south (comparing to a clock) is 6, 12, 8, 4, 10, and 2. (also see the link provided by Axter which is wonderful). Beware there is a time limit...respawns will kill your party fast.

Having 4 people in the party who needed this quest helped my group. If you have all 5 it is even easier since fewer folks have to move to another balcony.

Have each person stand in their own balconies (open your map all the way and you should be able to see them). Provide each person with their number in the sequence, so that they know who is before them. When everyone is set start the sequence and sound off when complete. The next person will know to use their statue and so on. If someone needs to move, make sure they know where to go and when they are supposed to go again before you start so as to avoid confusion during the process. (In the case of our group, I was the only one who really knew the sequence, so I told each person when to go and to sound off when done. This minimized problems immensely and worked like a charm, well..minus the respawns..hehe) Start the sequence and the statue areas will light up with a translucent green glow.

Upon completing the final statue a larger snake statue (resembling the ones on the balconies) springs up in the middle of the water, along with a lvl 50 elite. You can either jump down or take the stairs (I suggest jumping as there is enough room to avoid the mob and prepare for the final assault without aggro if you stay away from the edges of the lower circle). When you're ready, take on the final mob. Upon his death, use the statue to gain the box and open it. Enjoy.

Anybody about to start the series of quests, I tell you, dont bother. In same time you can run the instance through like 5 times and by then you got a lot better gear than the reward

Is there something special that has to be done once I have the Hakkari Urn?

I open it but can't take the 3 items out. I click on each to loot, but nothing happens.

Thanks.

You get a little gift item that can be opened for the reward items.

Mark of Hakkar:
(Item #10780) Breastplate:
(Item #10781) Shroud:
(Item #10782)

I helped a friend of mine who needed to do this quest. she was a 48 rogue and i was a 51 rogue. we stealthed all way in with no problem into instance zone of ST. once inside we stealthed up and when she was rdy we went to each statue one by one in the proper order. when she was rdy i got close to the NPC close to staute and broke stealth(hit sprint before) and ran for it. i took all the npc's with me and when she got the statue done i vanished. we did this for every statue. I only came close to dying once due to waiting too long after she touched one of the statues. once all 6 statues were done we went down into middle of water below and i sapped the biggest guy there and got aggro from the others in area . same as before i would hit my sprint right before breaking stealth or sapping last guy. it was a piece of cake. we did not even once atttack anything. she got the chest with 3 green items in it. the only delay in doing this was waiting for my vanish to cooldown each time. this can work with any 2 characters who can stealth. the big thing to remember is bring enough flash powder.

i did all the statues and the boss spawned, but apparently i didnt complete the quest ><

Standing at the altar looking over the water, the order of the statues is 12 oclock, 6 oclock, 2, 10, 4, 8 oclock. Make sure you have the stone circle and place it in the alter BEFORE you start activating the statues. To get to the statue level go into the 2nd hallway from the left at the entrance.

Edited, Mon Feb 21 15:10:52 2005

Just when you enter the instance there are 4 ways to go... lets call em 1,2,3 and 4... 1 is the one far left, 2 is the second one, from the left, and if you go through 3 you get to the snakes :) Good Luck questing!

Contrary to what folks may tell you in the game, you can guess the order of the statues. You can touch them out of order until you get the first one correct (south). This was confirmed when I rushed some folks with my 70. We went CCW through every statue (a lotta fails) and eventually summoned the boss.

For the record, actually knowing the order WILL speed up the process by a lot.

well every time ive been in we just split up and each take a statue, after clearing
the area of course

I've got the quest and am in the room with the water and the snake statues. i see tablets all over the place but i cant target any of them at all. i've been searching through this area for about an hour or so and reading the forums but cant find out why i cannot get this to work...

please if anyone has and help i appreciate it

thx

Just soloed this as a 60 hunter, the statues were pretty simple to all activate using feign death. Interestingly you don't have to kill Atal'alarion the mini boss after activating all the statues. You can access the statue in the middle and get the reward without agroing him if you're high enough lvl.

this quest was a pain in the ass because my group kept dieing so it took over 4 hours just to complete this quest. But when we did we all disbanded... anyways u click on the snakes in this order
1) South
2) North
3) Southwest
4) Southeast
5) Northwest
6) Northeast

then u jump down and u clear all of the creatures and click on the huge idol and complete the quest.