Sam grinned as his eyes followed the contours of the enormous dome downward until he was looking at Zara. “This place remind you of anything?”
Zara’s hazel-green eyes stared up in fascination. The edge of her lips curled upwards and she bit her lower lip and then screamed, “The Roman Pantheon!”
Sam nodded. “Which means?”
“The Romans conquered this far south?”
Sam shook his head. “No. Quite the opposite in fact.”
Zara didn’t bother hiding her skepticism. “You think the Garamantes conquered Rome?”
“Not conquered. But certainly heavily influenced the development of Roman architecture.”
“That’s absurd. The Roman Empire was miles ahead of the rest of the world at the time. In the arts, sciences, and engineering. There was no comparison. And to consider their development was challenged by an ancient tribe of nomadic people is laughable.”
“And yet, true.”
She smiled. “Christ! You’re serious! Why?”
Sam tilted his head to the side until a grin matched his slant. “Oh, I have my reasons.”
Zara shook her head. “No. There’s never been any evidence to suggest the Garamantes ever traveled this far south. Besides, this dome is too complex for them to construct. If anything, I’d have to guess these are older than we’re thinking. I think the ancient Romans built them before the Sahara dried up and turned to sand.”
Sam grinned. “No. I can prove it right here, right now that the Romans didn’t build this dome. I’m going to prove it to you, if you’ll listen!”
“What do you think, Tom?” Zara smiled at Tom, who had already cozied up to one of the bags of stones and stretched out comfortably. “Was this dome built by Romans or Garamantes?”
Tom fluffed the bag of stones, as he would a pillow and turned away. “I honestly don’t care one iota who built them. All I know is that we’ve been running on adrenaline for nearly forty-eight hours just trying to keep alive, and before that Sam and I had spent nearly a week in the desert. Now I’m just glad the dome exists and I can rest up while the two of you plot some new means of our demise.”
Zara turned her palms outwards and looked at Sam. “He’s not even a little curious?”
“Not particularly,” Sam suggested. “He’s more of a practical kind of guy.”
“So, you don’t think this was an elaborate smuggler’s den?” she joked.
“Do you know any smugglers who could compete with the Roman architects of the day?”
“So you do think it was built by the Romans!”
“No. I think it was built using similar technology as the Romans. It’s been long agreed that the Garamantes and the Romans shared similar architectural and engineering designs for their aqueducts.”
“Yes. And I thought it was largely agreed that the Garamantes learned their trade from the Romans. If anything, I think the presence of this dome here means the Garamantes were using Roman engineers to build it. Maybe they were trading with them for the intellectual property?”
“I think if you stare at the ceiling long enough you’ll see why this wasn’t built by the Romans. Certainly not between the 500BC and 700AD when the Garamantes were supposed to have lived.”
He watched her eyes study the large dome. She started with the base of one of the four large pendentives. These were the triangular segments of a sphere, which were tapered to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for the dome. Her eyes studied the skirting between the bases where the water met the dome walls, and then moved upwards along the stone walls, which were still mostly covered with a mixture of limestone, like cement. Her eyes stopped at the giant hole in the ceiling directly above them. Possibly even sixty or more feet high. The opening looked like a tiny opening to the stars. Sam knew the size was an optical illusion and the opening could have been quite wide.
Zara stopped. Her eyes met his. “Okay. I’m an archeologist, not an architect. Tell me why this wasn’t built by the Romans?”
“You were so close,” Sam said. “The Roman influence is undeniable, but the Roman’s never could have constructed this during any period BC.”
“But the Garamantes were around up until the 700AD!”
“True, but work like this would have taken at least a hundred years to construct and they would have only constructed it if they still had plenty of water to look after it.”
She asked, “So?”
Sam said, “The Romans didn’t develop pendentives until the 6th-century. It was first used in the construction of the Eastern Roman Church, Hagia Sophia at Constantinople!”
Zara glanced at the massive pendentives again. “Whoever built here, knew how to use pendentives a lot earlier than the 6th century.”
“Exactly.”
Zara asked, “What are you suggesting happened?”
Sam said, “I’m suggesting this place was built by the Garamantes and that they were much more advanced than history has led us to believe.”
“There’s been a long standing debate about the similarities of the aqueducts built by the Garamantes and the Romans. Some have argued the Garamantes stole their ideas from the Romans, but some have questioned, whether or not it was the Romans who had learned from the Garamantes?”
“That’s great, but even for an archeologist, I’m currently more interested in how we’re going to escape. We just need to stay down here long enough for our pursuers to pass by and then we can surface.”
Sam shook his head. “You know that’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Even if we waited a week, which is the minimum we’d need to wait to escape, we’d still be stuck in the desert. By that time, we’d have gone a week on these tiny rations we took from the downed plane. We’ll be malnourished, starving, and in no shape to cross a desert on foot. Then, if we make it to Chad, or Bilma, there’ll be too many people there looking for us.”
“So, have you got a better plan?”
“Well, as a matter of fact, I do.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Sam said, “The oculus was used by the Romans, one of the finest examples being that in the dome of the Pantheon. Open to the weather, it allows rain to enter and fall to the floor, where it is carried away through drains. Though the opening looks small, it actually has a diameter of 27 feet allowing it to light the building just as the sun lights the earth. The rain also keeps the building cool during the hot summer months.”
Zara dawdled, unsure where he was going.
“The Romans, however, failed to discover a proper handling of the pendentive — the device essential to placing a dome over a square compartment — that was finally achieved by the Byzantine builders of Hagia Sophia at Constantinople around AD 532–37. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for the dome. In masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath. Prior to the pendentive's development, the device of corbeling or the use of the squinch in the corners of a room had been employed. The first attempts at pendentives were made by the Romans, but full achievement of the form was reached only by the Byzantines in Hagia Sophia at Constantinople. Pendentives were commonly used in Renaissance and baroque churches, with a drum often inserted between the dome and pendentives.”