Stella beamed in delight.
“No.”When he didn’t immediately say anything else, she scoffed.He chuckled, obviously amused with himself.“It once had a veneer of polished white limestone completely covering it,” he finally replied.“Now, imagine how magnificent it must have appeared on a day such as this,” he said, his hands spread wide.“There are reports that when the sun hit the top of it, it glowed as if it was made of silver and gold, which is actually a possibility for what is called the pyramidion—the very top of a pyramid.You see, the pyramid builders used to cap their creations with a material we callelectrum, a sort of combination of gold and silver and other metals,” he explained.
“The reflection must have been blinding on a sunny day,” Will commented.
“The god Ra at his finest,” Omar agreed, obviously pleased the earl had provided the perfect setup for his comment.
“Can we go inside this one?”David asked, as if he was anxious to do so.Apparently, he had forgotten about the bats.
Omar winced.“You can, but it is terribly hot, and the air inside is very poor,” he replied.
“Worse than Khufu’s pyramid at Giza?”David pressed.
Nodding, the guide said, “You ask as if you made the trek inside that one?”
David nodded.“I did.”
Omar’s eyes widened.“You are a brave man.”
A round of chuckles greeted the comment, and David’s face reddened with embarrassment.“I was merely startled when that boy appeared from out of the darkness,” he murmured in his own defense.
“How does one get inside this pyramid, and was anything found in there?”Tom asked with excitement.
Rolling his eyes, Omar inhaled and sighed in resignation.“The entrance is accessible,” he admitted, once again pointing toward the south.“But it requires you climb one-hundred-and-twenty-five steps to get to the entrance.Steepsteps.Then you must go down through a two-hundred foot passage that leads to two antechambers.”
“Haveyoubeen in inside?”Helen asked, her hands wrapped around her baby brother’s middle.A bonnet covered his head, and he was seated so he faced outward.He seemed as interested in the giant wall of red limestone in front of them as he did thekoftahe gripped in one hand.
“I have,” Omar replied.“The antechambers feature nearly forty-foot high corbeled ceilings, and there is an even higher corbeled burial chamber.Very impressive once you climb up to it.”
“Was anythinginthere?”she asked in awe.
He angled his head first to the left and then to the right.“When it was first entered, it is said there were some human remains found.Fragmentary, at best,” he clarified.“But they were thought to be of Sneferu himself.”
A collective awe sounded throughout his audience.
“I will allow you time to eat your luncheon, but should you have questions, I will do my very best to answer them,” he said.
The group turned their attention to the various foods spread out on the blankets, the young men helping themselves to second and third helpings of the savory meatballs.When no one asked any questions of their guide, he sauntered off in the direction Randy had gone only moments earlier.
“Here you are,” Randy said as he approached Diana, his wife sitting crossed-legged on the ground as she sketched the face of the pyramid which included the access to its entry.“I feared I would discover you had gone inside by yourself.”
Diana glanced up from her sketchpad.“It has been tempting, but from what I read of this tomb, it’s quite hot inside.Easier to navigate than the one at Giza, though.”
“Omar said the air is of poor quality.I feared you might faint should you go in there,” Randy said as he lowered himself to the ground.He held out a napkin filled with a variety of foods.“I wasn’t sure what you might like, so I brought a bit of everything.”
She gave him an appreciative grin before leaning over to buss him on the cheek.“You are a dear,” she said, plucking akoftafrom the napkin.“I’m starving.”She bit off the end of it and made a humming noise.
Randy grinned before directing his attention to her drawing.“Will you paint it?”he asked.
“Maybe,” she responded, her quick strokes having already outlined the pyramid and the curving line of stairs that led to the opening halfway up the south-facing surface.“The color will be quite a challenge to match.”
“Is it what you expected?”he asked, his brows furrowed with worry.He hadn’t read any of the books on Egypt she had been reading every night before they turned out the lights, and he was curious as to her expectations.
She stopped drawing and regarded him with an expression of surprise.“Better, I should think, although I do wish some of the veneer was still intact.That and the pyramidion,” she commented.“I read that it was coated in?—”
“Electrum,” he interrupted, grinning when her blonde brows rose in surprise.“Omar told us about it,” he added sheepishly.
“Then he is a good dragoman,” she stated.
