“Here,” she replied from somewhere to his right.He quickly joined her, understanding immediately what had her attention.The front wall as well as the two side walls were covered in carvings, some of the original paint still intact.She was slowly gazing at the front wall from left to right, as if memorizing it.
“The Romans were definitely here,” she murmured.
“Oh?”
She pointed up to an area near the opening.“Latin,” she said, pointing to a man’s name etched in between the hieroglyphics.She dropped her finger down to where ‘Leonardo 1820” was clearly carved into the limestone, and not far from it, in a flat area devoid of Egyptian carving, was a phrase in Greek.“It’s a poem.”
“That basically says ‘I was here and saw all,’” Randy murmured.
His gaze swept up the wall to his left and then to the ceiling, which appeared black.He was about to mention it when Mahmood cleared his throat.
“We are in the hypostyle of the Temple of Hathor,” he announced.“Built to honor and worship the goddess.”He waved a hand to one of the pillars, a series of colorful carvings surrounding it all the way to the top.Most of the columns—twenty-four in total—were similarly carved and painted, the colors still vibrant, but a few appeared unfinished.Nearly all the capitals had been vandalized to remove Hathor’s facial features.“You will not see as many carvings, reliefs or paintings in any of the other temples on your travels as you will see here in this one.”
“Why would that be?”Will asked, his attention on one of the walls.
Mahmood lifted a shoulder.“It’s as if the priests demanded everything of our history be recorded for posterity.Perhaps because they feared our history would be lost due to foreign rule.”
“Foreign rule?”Harry repeated, turning from where he was studying one of the pillars.
“The later pharaohs were not Egyptian,” the guide replied.
“The Ptolemaic dynasty,” Diana murmured.“Which would explain why this temple is in such good condition.”
“What’s that, my sweet?”Randy asked.
“It’s possible this temple was built only a couple of thousand years ago,” she replied, her voice louder.
Barbara sounded a scoff.“Only?”
“Considering the pyramids we saw werefour-thousand years old, then yes,” Randy remarked.
“Oh, I see your point,” his aunt replied thoughtfully.
“Let us go further into the temple,” Mahmood suggested.“And to the snail—the staircase of light that leads to the roof.”
Murmurs of curiosity followed his announcement, and everyone lined up behind the guide as he headed into the inner hypostyle, pausing between two columns.They weren’t in very good condition.“This was probably the front of the temple in an earlier version,” he announced, pointing to the columns on either side of him.From the worn appearance, it was evident the columns had been exposed to wind.“This temple may have been rebuilt or simply enlarged by later pharaohs.”He turned and continued between two rows of three Hathor-topped columns.
Instead of heading into the offering hall, he turned right and then stepped through an opening in the wall on the left.He took a sharp right on the other side of the wall, where light appeared at the end of a corridor.The walls on either side were decorated in bas reliefs and looked as if they were covered in soot.
Ahead, a series of shallow stairs led up toward the source of light—a small window in the temple wall.The surface of the stairs looked as if something thick had been poured onto it and allowed to drip down.
“We know not why these stairs are this way,” Mahmood remarked as he ascended the first section before turning to the left and disappearing up the next set of stairs.“But they are here for ceremonial purposes,” he added, continuing his ascent.“This set for going up to the roof and there is another for going down.”
“There’s another set of stairs?”Harry asked, urging Stella to go in front of him.She did so, followed by Helen and Tom.
He had hovered near his daughter ever since their arrival at the temple, as if he feared she might require assistance after her ordeal with the snake.
“A long, straight set of stairs is on the other side of the temple,” Mahmood replied.“The stairs we are on were used for religious ceremonies, especially during the festival to welcome the new year,” he continued as he turned yet again to the left to climb another set of shallow stairs.“The reliefs you see on the walls depict the pharaohs making their offerings to the gods.”
“These are astronomical symbols,” Diana remarked, pausing to study a series of hieroglyphs.
“Indeed.This temple was probably used for astronomical observations,” Mahmood agreed.“The roof provides an excellent location from which to see the entire sky at night.”
“This must be where the zodiac was removed,” Randy said, pausing to look straight up.Indeed, where the rest of the ceiling was black, a large area of the sandstone appeared especially rough and newly exposed.
“Damned frogs,” David cursed.
“Penton!”Barbara scolded, using his title to good effect.
