The Professor got out of the trench and met Gail half way.
“I am certain, Gail, that you have seen or heard stories of archaeologists entering tombs and crypts over a hundred years ago, haven’t you?” he started.
“Like Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings, you mean?” she asked.
“Yes, absolutely. Well, we have come a long way in science, in methods and in practice since then, but no matter how much technology we have and how many studies we undertake, the basics of what we are about to do remain the same now as they were when Carter first took his pick to the mortar that sealed Tutankhamen inside his tomb.” He paused for her reaction, one of mild surprise, before continuing. “I think that with what has happened over the past few days, you have more than enough material to start your thesis.”
She laughed and looked to her left, at the steps leading down into the depths of the rock. “I think so,” she said.
His eyes followed hers and he looked up at her, smiling. “Your enthusiasm, not to mention lots of luck, has helped to find something very special in Amarna, Gail. Some of the most incredible finds in archaeology have been found by luck, and mostly not by archaeologists. But you have the benefit of not only being lucky, but also an archaeologist, and as a reward you will be the first student to enter this tomb.”
“Thank you, Mamdouh, but Ben found the site with me and translated the hieroglyphs.” Gail liked Ben a lot, and thought it unfair to remove any credit from him for the discovery.
“This is true, but would Ben have reached this cliff top were it not for you?” he smiled and looked over at Ben, who was having an animated discussion with George. “And he is not an archaeologist at heart, he will find passion in something else. You on the other hand, are an archaeologist, and always will be no matter what you do. What lies beneath our feet at this very moment may be the biggest find you ever make.”
She looked over to her Egyptian friend and smiled. “I will ask Ben, and offer to go down the steps with him,” she decided. “If that’s alright with you, Mamdouh?” she added quickly.
Mamdouh grinned. “Whatever you think is best, Gail, the choice is yours.” He took a step past her and raised his voice to get everyone’s attention.
The students, engineers, photographer and George had all been biding their time following the uncovering of the steps several minutes earlier. The thrill of the unknown, coupled with the Professor’s desire to control the descent into the tomb, had fuelled their impatience, and it had been hard for everyone to content themselves with a simple glance or two into the hole.
He lifted his head and addressed the crowd in Arabic as the Al Jazeera photographer took a flurry of shots. “I will descend the steps first, along with an engineer who will ensure that the structure is safe. I will then come back up and we will discuss what to do next. OK?”
They all nodded, and watched as he descended with a powerful hand torch, followed by an engineer with a large black case that presumably held instruments with which they would assess the structure.
Gail looked at George and Ben, who were standing on the edge of the trench, and grinned from ear to ear.
Almost ten minutes passed before anything was heard from the hole. Suddenly, the engineer suddenly hopped up the steps, out of the trench and over to his two colleagues with their X-ray system.
After a brief exchange of words, the men gathered their equipment together and carried it over to the steps. Within two minutes they had all disappeared underground, much to the frustration of the Al Jazeera photographer, who returned from relieving himself just in time to see the engineer’s head vanish down the hole.
“Is this normal?” George said out loud to no one in particular.
“The last tomb to be excavated in Egypt was over thirty years ago. And the last before that was over a hundred years ago.” Gail answered. “With that track record, normal probably means breaking in, stealing all the gold and taking the finds out of the country. So no, this isn’t normal.”
George looked at his wife and shook his head. “That’s not quite what I meant, honey.”
“I do not know if it is normal,” Ben said. “But it is annoying. I want to know what is down there!”
Gail looked at him and summoned the courage to ask him the question she had been reciting in her head. “Ben, Mamdouh has suggested that when he gets back, I go down the steps first on my own, followed by you and the other students,” she said. There was a brief pause. “Do you want to come with me first instead?”
Ben looked at her with a smile. “Gail, this is your find, I merely sat on it to keep it warm.”
“But you were with me, we found it together,” she was almost pleading with him. She felt bad for wanting to leave Ben and be alone, it was not a sign of a competitive streak, she convinced herself, if she tried to make him come with her. But deep down inside she knew that she would not have asked him, but told him to come with her first, had she not wanted to go down alone.
“I wanted to turn back before we got to the top of the cliff, Gail, you did not,” he explained. “If it wasn’t for my requirement to pass this year, I would probably be in Cairo still. You came from England to be here, and climbed over many rocks against my judgement. This is your find.”
“Thank you, Ben,” Gail said, the emotion rising in her throat.
There was an awkward silence during which they all looked towards the steps.
“How was Karnak?” Ben suddenly asked George, changing the subject.
He smiled and pointed at his hat. “That good,” he replied. “Is anyone else hungry?” Saying this, he opened his backpack and removed a couple of packets of biscuits and a large bottle of water.
They shared the snacks around, though almost everyone was too excited to eat, and did their best to enjoy tourist anecdotes for the next fifteen minutes, making sure to keep an eye on the trench for signs of the Professor and the three engineers.
It was while Ben was interesting everyone with a story of an overzealous border guard in Algeria, translating into English at the same time, that the Professor finally emerged from the hole.
Within seconds everyone had crowding round him.
Mamdouh looked up at them all seriously for several long moments before breaking into a huge grin, his white teeth shining in the afternoon sun. He said a short sentence in Arabic and received a great cheer in reply, while the photographer’s camera flashed crazily in the background.
“Mamdouh?” Gail asked over the sound of a hundred questions being asked at the same time in Arabic.
He turned towards her and laughed out loud. “Gail,” he sounded relaxed and enthused, in complete contrast to his behaviour before descending the steps half an hour earlier. “I said you had enough to start your thesis with what we have seen since you arrived, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did.”
“I am sorry, Gail, I was wrong.” He put his hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Gail, with what you have found here in Amarna, you have enough for your entire career!”
Gail’s heart missed a beat. “Is Nefertiti down there?”
“We don’t know yet, we can’t tell.”
“So what is it?” she urged.
Chapter 10
Gail took her first step cautiously. She now understood what Mamdouh had meant, talking about Carter and entering a tomb for the first time; no amount of science and studying could have prepared her for the sheer excitement of knowing that apart from four men within the past hour, she was the first person in over three thousand years to descend these steps, and certainly the first woman.
The engraved stone they had removed from the surface had been sitting on a flat sill, six inches wide and two inches deep that ran uninterrupted along all four edges of the hole. The passageway in between was five feet wide, enough for two people to walk down side by side without touching each other. She took a mental note to thank Ben once more for letting her go down alone.