The Expedition - 6. Chapter 6

I thought I got up early, but when I approached the temple, Mahmoud was sitting on the wall drinking a cup of tea. “Did you bring a cup for me?”

He must have been lost in thought. He jumped and spilled his tea. “You scared me.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were so deep in thought. I’ll go and refill your cup. Have you had anything to eat?”

“Not yet. I was going to have breakfast after I finished my tea. I had to see the temple first. Sitting here, thinking about why they would build a temple in such a desolate place. It’s almost like they didn’t want anyone to worship in this temple.”

“There is a mystery about this temple. The location is unusual. Building it here would make it difficult and secretive. I get the impression they didn’t want anyone to know about this temple or visit. Let’s have breakfast, and we can get Mostafa and continue to clean the pediment.”

“I am here. I thought I would find both of you here.”

Laughing, we went and had breakfast. The crew brushed the sand from the boards while we ate. “I would like to measure the amount of sand that collects on those boards. We might be able to confirm when the temple was built.”

Mostafa assumed his position and started to brush away the sand. He had shown Mahmoud the sun and the beginning of a head. I showed him where he could start on the pediment. For the next 5 hours, we worked on the pediment in front of us. It was slow work, but we knew it would be slow. We broke for lunch, which we ate as we sat on the wall in front of the temple. We had concluded that it was a temple that wasn’t built for the public. It had a specific purpose.

A month passed, and again Mostafa made the first discovery. He had cleared enough of his side to make an educated guess that this temple was built to honor Amun. He had uncovered the sun above a figure of an ankh. I had enough uncovered to make a guess that someone was sitting in a chair or throne. Mahmoud had revealed a caked impression of a wing after he brushed the loose sand away.

Over dinner, we discussed what we had uncovered. “Mostafa, if your section represents Amun, then my section would represent who? Could it be Mut, his wife?”

“No, if that were the case, Amun would be on the left side, and Mut would be on the right side.”

“Who in Egyptian theology would be on par with Amun?”

“There is no one. Amun is the Creator of all.”

I had a feeling, but it seemed preposterous. A Greek temple, could the left side be Zeus. He was to the Greeks as Amun was to the Egyptians.

These feelings were proven true one month later. There was no question that Mostafa and Mahmoud had uncovered enough to show Amun. A sun above an Ankh on the shoulders of the outspread wings of an eagle. I had exposed Zeus, sitting on a throne on the left side, with an eagle on his right side and a rod on his left.

That evening I was in a deep sleep. I was on a battlefield. Our commander was killed. We took him to bury in secret. We didn’t want the enemy to know he was dead. “Mahmoud!!! I know who is buried in that temple.”