Egypt - 5. Chapter 5

Early the next morning, the area was roped off and the digging began, but a problem quickly arose. As soon as the sand was removed and piled on a side, the wind shifted and moved a lot of it back onto the site and into the excavation.

The answer to that problem was to go to Luxor and obtain wooden platforms to be placed upright or erect, as walls at the site. This would prevent the sand from falling back into the area where the slab was being excavated. For the next three days, a detailed study was made of the area. When the trucks and additional labor arrived from Luxor, walls were constructed and the digging began once again.

The uncovering of the slab detected by sonar was slow. Every shovel of sand had to be examined in case there were artifacts . Eight days later, working two shifts, a set of stairs leading down into the ground were unearthed. At the bottom of the steps, there was a door, hoping it would lead into the vaults under the pyramid, they tried to open it treating it as a normal door, I.e. hinged on one side. But this door wasn’t like that. It was permanently sealed shut, with the intent that no one could enter the area under the pyramid. Now a conference was needed. The door could be opened by breaking it down, but that could mean anything attached to the other side of the door would be destroyed.

The decision was made to loosen the door by removing all the material surrounding the door. More sand now had to be lifted out until they could place wedges between the door and the wall where they had removed the sand. Using the wedges carefully, they pried the door loose, and now entry was possible.

Early the next morning, lights were connected to the generator, as the team was ready to enter the cavern under the pyramid. They speculated as to what they would find.

“Do you think Djoser is buried there?”

“If there are any mummies there, I’m sure he would be there.”

As they entered the space, they noted that they were in a hall. It appeared that the hall ran the length of the pyramid. On the walls were paintings and sculptures. The paintings depicted the afterlife. Dr. Al Khatib said it was very old Egyptian, possibly 3 - 4000 years old.

“This pyramid was built way before the pyramids we see in Cairo and Luxor. I would dare to say this was built during the 3rd Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.”

The paintings were extraordinary, the colors were bright and gave the appearance of just being painted. David looked at Steven.

“Steven, get lights down here and take photos of these walls.”

David knew a certain person at the university would very much like those photos. If he knew Jim, he would have a diorama of photos for the public. As Steven set the group to taking photos, David and Dr. Al Khatib investigated the wall further in the hallway.

“These paintings must depict the afterlife. It was the early custom for the pharaohs to have paintings of the afterlife in their home as well as their final reading place.”

“These paintings appear to have been completed relatively recently. If I touch one, I'll probably have wet paint on my hand.”

“It appears to have a glaze of some sort over it. We will study these paintings more, now that we can enter the tomb.”

“Where are the sarcophagus. If Djoser built this he must be here somewhere. Do you suppose behind those doors along the hall are the sarcophaguses of the high officials in his court?”

“Possibly there is, but we must be very careful when we open those doors. Air may destroy what is in those rooms.”

They were walking toward the end of the hall as they were talking. The hallway ended before an elaborate door.

“I think we should carefully open this door. Suppose we block off the hall here so that when we do open the door only a minimum of air will enter.”

“This door doesn’t seem airtight. We probably flooded this hall with air when we removed the outer door. Let’s open this door and see what is inside.”