The Forbidden Tomb

63

Based on the revelation about Alexander’s body, Cobb decided to play additional footage for Manjani, starting with the video of the pictograph.

Needless to say, it left him speechless. He simply stared at the screen as the camera moved down the length of wall. An occasional gasp escaped his lips as he studied the symbols. This continued until they reached the end of the clip.

Manjani glanced at Cobb. ‘Please show me again.’

‘Only if you speak this time.’

‘Yes, of course.’

The second time through, Manjani couldn’t contain his glee — or his words — as he watched the footage. ‘Do you know what this is?’

Sarah nodded. ‘It’s a timeline of the city, from its creation until Alexander’s body was smuggled out to sea. Our historian told me that before she was taken.’

Manjani shook his head. ‘Close, but not quite right. I understand her interpretation, I really do, but I’m sorry to say that she was mistaken.’

‘Mistaken how?’ Cobb demanded.

‘The symbols were meant to resemble the traditional markings of the era, but there were subtle alterations that changed the translation. It’s like an embedded code — a form of communication meant only for those who were familiar with it. The high priests did this frequently, just in case an outsider stumbled across one of their messages. The outsider would interpret it one way, and the priests would view it another.’

‘But you can read it?’

‘Yes,’ he assured them, ‘I am quite familiar with the basics. I studied the language for many months in preparation for my last expedition. Ultimately, it was a message like this that led us to the discovery of the settlement.’

‘Really?’ Cobb grunted, somewhat surprised. ‘I guess we got that wrong. We were under the impression that you were looking for Alexander’s tomb.’

‘That’s correct. We were searching for his tomb.’

‘Hold on just a second.’ Cobb was starting to get confused. He hit the PAUSE button so Manjani would concentrate on his questions instead of the footage. ‘Let’s back up and start over. When you assembled your team, what were you looking for?’

‘We were looking for Alexander’s tomb.’

‘But you found the settlement instead.’

‘Exactly!’ Manjani said. ‘On its own, the settlement was a very nice discovery. Not nearly as glamorous as Alexander’s tomb, but still a solid find. My students, most of whom were light in fieldwork, were absolutely elated.’

‘But not you.’

He shook his head. ‘When you’re hunting for Moby Dick, a shark won’t suffice.’

Cobb smiled. ‘Good point.’

Sarah used the moment to reenter the conversation. ‘Out of curiosity, what led you to believe that the tomb was where you were digging?’

Manjani glanced at her. ‘Are you familiar with the Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert? It is home to a modern archaeological site known as the Valley of the Golden Mummies. Since its discovery in 1996, hundreds of bodies have been uncovered there, and I believe thousands more will be discovered — all followers of Alexander.’

Cobb connected the dots. ‘You thought the body was moved to Bahariya?’

‘It was a working theory,’ Manjani said with a shrug. ‘You see, the Temple of Alexander is located in Bahariya. It is the only such temple in all of Egypt to honor him. Although there is no tomb inside, we found several records of travelers who asked to be buried near the temple in the belief that it would bring them closer to Alexander. That might not seem like much, but these messages weren’t the scribbled notes of commoners. They were written by the personal scribes of noblemen from Egypt, Greece, Rome, and beyond. These people left their homelands to be buried in the middle of the desert, and we thought the reason was Alexander.’

‘What about now?’ Sarah wondered.

‘Now?’ he asked, confused.

‘You said the tomb’s presence in Bahariya was a working theory. I noticed that you used the past tense, was. Does that mean you’ve changed your mind?’

He shrugged. ‘I suppose I have.’

‘Why?’ she asked.

‘Pardon the pun, but I saw the writing on the wall.’

The look on her face said that she wasn’t amused.

‘Just hear me out,’ Manjani said as he pointed at the image frozen on the screen. ‘These three symbols of the spindle, the scroll, and the shears represent the Fates. It means that a prophecy was foretold by the oracle. This square, here, is Pandora’s box. Whatever the prophecy was, it wasn’t good news. And look here — the horned man inside the block that these people are carrying? That’s Alexander. They’re moving his tomb.’

Sarah had heard all of this before from Jasmine. ‘Right. They evacuated Alexander to a waiting ship. Isn’t that what the ram’s head on the boat means?’

Manjani shook his head. ‘In the language of the priests, the ram’s head on a man refers to Alexander. The ram’s head by itself refers to his father, Amun. The boat with the symbol of Amun simply tells us that he was directing their attention to the water. You have to understand the context to appreciate what he was trying to convey.’

She was getting impatient. ‘What did he say?’

‘It’s a warning, telling the priests to fear the water. It implores them to remove Alexander’s body from the city, because something terrible was coming from the sea. If I had to guess, I’d say it refers to the tsunami in 365 that nearly wiped out the city. Unfortunately for me, the accounts that led us to Bahariya were all written at least a hundred and fifty years before the tsunami. That means we were wrong about the Valley of the Golden Mummies because Alexander’s tomb was still in Alexandria for more than a century after the noblemen asked to be buried near the oasis.’

‘Good,’ Cobb said. ‘I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but that’s one less place that we have to check. What else does the wall say? Does it give us a location?’

‘None that I saw, but let me check again.’

Manjani fast-forwarded the video and studied the final frame of the pictograph, searching for the smallest of clues. In his excitement, he realized it would have been easy to neglect a crucial detail in the coded message about the tomb. He scanned the image slowly and methodically, looking for a symbol that would point them in the right direction, but he found nothing.

‘You’re sure this is everything? There were no other carvings on the wall?’

‘I’m positive,’ she answered. ‘I looked over every inch of the wall. And Jasmine examined it, too. That’s everything we found.’

Manjani cursed in Greek, obviously frustrated.

‘What’s missing?’ Cobb asked.

‘I don’t know — I really don’t — but something. There has to be more. There just has to be. Because this doesn’t make any sense!’