Linc found himself standing by the great pyramid. There was a lot of
scaffolding placed up the side and people helping a very fat man into
a litter.
As the litter bearers groaned to lift the litter he looked over at a
worker who was laughing heartily. He sat down on a piece of stone
that had been removed from the pyramid. He could see that the workers
had actually removed some of the stones to break into the pyramid
itself. The worker who was laughing so hard came over to him and
asked if he was with the other guy that was just there a few moments
ago. Linc said he might be, what did the other guy do? The worker
said the other guy wanted to see what treasures the new Caliph found
in the tomb? And the laughing again, he recounted what happened.
The Worker told how the Caliph wanted to see the tomb for himself and
how it came about
The Caliph Ma'mun laboriously climbed his way up the 41.2 cubits of
swaying ladders, to the original entrance of the Great Pyramid, a
difficult task for a portly Caliph and a worrying moment for his
advisors, solders, and workers. After a short slide down the
descending passage to the junction with the ascending passage, he
entered the small rough shaft that his men had dug around the granite
plug blocks, and scrambled into the ascending passage. From there he
struggled up the Grand Gallery, his men cautiously pushing his chubby
buttocks from behind. Sweating and cursing, he finally crawled on
hands and knees into the King's chamber, a degrading and exhausting
experience that no Caliph had endured either before or since.
Ma'mun was flustered, even angry, but also elated. Although he had
been briefed that the King's chamber was basically empty, what it did
possess was an untouched, enigmatic and completely sealed sarcophagus!
This was the prize that justified these privations. Caliph al-Ma'mun
was going to be at the opening of this sarcophagus at whatever cost –
he was not about to let his chief vizier run of with the treasures of
the Old Kingdom pharaohs of Egypt, or perhaps even the secrets of the
gods themselves!
A disorganized rabble of workmen arrived and prised at the coffer lid
with crow-bars. They cursed, swore and shouted, but the lid just would
not budge. Finally, in a state of ecstatic anticipation, Ma'mun pushed
the rabble aside and ordered the coffer to be smashed with
sledge-hammers. The chief gaffir aimed a few heavy blows and with a
great crash, one corner of the sarcophagus flew off; and the result of
his endeavors are still visible to this day.
Ma'mun ordered the workers away, yelled for silence, grabbed a
flickering lamp from a soldier and approached the hole in trepidation.
Then, the significance of the moment struck him. He was standing
inside the greatest of all the world's ancient monuments, a structure
rumored to have been constructed by the gods themselves. Here at the
very heart of this sacred monument lay a simple, unadorned, solitary
black-granite coffer that had been sealed for thousands of years; and
he, Caliph al-Ma'mun, was going to be the first to see inside. His
hand began to tremble at the thought and he quickly steadied it with
the other, least the workers see him as apprehensive. He carefully
thrust the lamp inside the sarcophagus, but the flame on the lamp
flickered and it was difficult to see. But at last the flame steadied
and he saw for himself that the sarcophagus was ....... empty!
Caliph Al Ma'mun was absolutely livid. Suspecting, perhaps, that one
of his workers had manufactured this little rouse, he flew into a
violent rage and vented his anger on a few unfortunate victims of
summary justice. However, there was no way that Ma'mun was going to go
back to his palace from this escapade empty handed, after all he had
been through. But the chamber only contained the sarcophagus and it
was quite obvious that it was bigger than the entrance to the chamber.
As a consolation prize, they found that the lid of the sarcophagus
could be turned diagonally and just about squeeze through the King's
Chamber's tough granite entrance blocks. Ma'mun was going to have it
as a memento at all costs. Unfortunately for the workers, however,
after sliding the great block of stone down the Grand Gallery, they
found that the lid was not going to squeeze around the plug blocks and
into the descending passage. Besides, the lid must have weighed a ton,
and if it ever got into the descending passage, nobody could think of
a way of preventing it from plunging all the way down to the bottom of
the pyramid. In addition, the original entrance stone was far too
small to get the lid through. It was all becoming a bit of a
nightmare.
Spurred on by an enraged Caliph the chief of engineering eventually
came up with an answer. The only practical solution to this problem
was to force a new tunnel from the junction of the descending and
ascending passageways, horizontally through the core blocks of the
pyramid and into the open air. This they did and took the lid out,
followed by a very upset and angry Caliph. He cursed each and every
one around him. Everyone held their breaths as the obese man climbed
back down the rickety ladders.
The worker laughed again and clapped Linc on the shoulder. It was a
very funny tale and Linc laughed with him. The worker asked Linc what
he was doing here, as he looked like he was a stranger like the other
guy. Linc thought fast, then asked about the tomb painter Ruben
Hanks. Worker laughed again, and said there have been no tomb
painters in a very long time. Linc shrugged as the worker clapped him
on the back again and wandered off. Linc turned around and went back
through the portal to the mine.
Back at the cabin he was intrigued why the time masters opened that
portal. Maybe just for his amusement.
Seeing the traps were still ok, he went back to the farm.
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