The Mummy: The Tomb Robbers' Secret

The Tomb in the Cliffs

"What is this place?" Roma ran the beam from her electric torch along the walls of the chamber while Ardeth followed with his lantern. "Look," she said as she flashed the torch overhead, "The ceiling hasn't been worked but the walls are smooth and carved. I see the gods of the underworld, Horus, Osiris, Anubis, Isis, and Hathor, carved into the walls of the chamber, along with an image of the weighing of the heart, but where are the hieroglyphs?"

She pointed the torch at the floor, revealing a shiny black stone sarcophagus without its lid. She knelt beside it, running her hands over its smooth surface. "That's basalt, it's very hard to carve and polish but look at it! It's plain, though, not a carving in sight! I wonder what happened to its lid?"

She walked over to the plain stone coffin and peered inside, "Nothing on the inside, either, no traces of gold leaf." She sat back on her legs, thinking, running her hand through the sand at its base.

"Look!" she commanded, and he came to her side. She held up three beads carved of lapis lazuli. "Someone was here, this tomb was raided at least once, but what self-respecting Egyptian would bury themselves in a tomb without their name or spells painted on the walls from the Book of the Dead? They used them to guide them on their journey through the Underworld. And why did he, and I think it was a he, choose to be buried so far from the Valley of the Kings? He should have been buried where the royals had their tombs."

She went over to a wall with a carving of what might have been the owner and his wife. "This isn't bas-relief, this was carved directly into the wall. They carved the corridor and the chamber but only half-finished it. She crossed to the other side, "And here's two boys, these may have been his sons, but why no hieroglyphs? Egyptians wanted their names to be spoken to assure that they would have a place in the afterlife."

"There should be pictures of him harvesting grain, maybe hunting ducks, and one of Anubis attending his mummy, but there's nothing. This was most certainly a noble, but he was buried away from the others in the middle of this godforsaken place, no temple for funerary offerings or priests to say prayers for him. The sarcophagus is exquisite---even though it is plain there was a lot of work put into it. I wonder if there are any ushabtis here with his name on them?"

Outside they could hear the howling of the wind as it blew clouds of sand about, but inside the chamber they were safe. Roma ventured as far down the corridor as she dared until the sands started reaching her and she retreated into the tomb.

"How long do you think the storm will last, Ardeth? I want to get out of here, something is feeling very wrong. This is not a good place."

"Usually about half an hour, but no two storms are alike. Remember the story of the Persian soldiers that were buried alive by a sandstorm? We should stay here until we are ready to leave for the night. You need to get some sleep, do not tell me that you don't, you are half dead on your feet. Enjoy the chance to rest someplace cool."

And it was cool in the tomb if a tomb it was, refreshingly so, but she was not convinced. "I don't think he wants us here; we should leave."

"He? Who is he? If this tomb was ever used it was abandoned centuries ago. What have you found besides a few beads? We'll leave tomorrow evening, so rest and take it easy. Explore this place if you must, I know you want to. The spirit of the occupant no doubt disappeared with his grave goods and his mummy. In the meantime, I am going to sleep."

In the end, she found it hard to resist his logic. He removed the cots from the pack camel and set them up, but when she laid down, she found it hard to keep her eyes closed. She was tired to the point of exhaustion, yet sleep eluded her. Her mind and body had slowly begun to accustom themselves to sleeping during the day and staying awake at night. Fatigue might yet overcome her, but she was not ready to give in to sleep, not yet.