I felt strangely weighed down, so that I was not sure whether I felt like a proper explorer or more like a child in a faerie tale, with a bit of flat bread and an apple in my pockets, carrying a lamp, and having a sketchbook tucked inelegantly in the back of my trousers.
The view from below had been deceptive. As we climbed, the chevron-shaped stones became distinct from the entrance, which finally resolved as dark rectangular opening—well below the large stone rafters—barely the height of a man. David, ahead of me, confessed aloud much I had been thinking.
We both had the sense of being within a room, with a floor and high walls on three sides.
"This must have been a proper antechamber," David said. He pointed out the uneven masonry high along the surrounding walls. "It appears several more rafters are missing. They would have made a vaulted ceiling to support the weight of the stone above this chamber." He turned around, to face towards me. "And this side must have been enclosed by casing stones and inner walls. Meaning this is the entry to an internal passage, not the exterior entryway."
I turned, trying to imagine what had been there, but there was no sign; it was simply gone.
"Unless," David said behind me, "the floor was higher and this passage continued beneath the room."
I stepped forward, enough to look down to the base of the pyramid. I saw the camels hobbled together, but the rest of our party was no longer in sight.
I heard the pop of a flashbulb as David took a photograph.
"Julien, if you would stand over here for scale?"
I turned back towards the passage. David held one of those popular Dubroni self-developers. The Dhobitorium had kept an older model for recording pre-existing damage on togs. I walked across to the entryway.
"If you would, climb to that ledge above the passage."
I clambered up the limestone blocks, and waited as David inspected the last photo now rolling from the camera. He adjusted settings. There was no loud flash—or bright light—as with the earlier photo, but a low mechanical click and whir.
"Got it," he said.
I sat and slid from the stone foot-first to descend. Then, I peered into the darkness within the Great Pyramid. The sun was well above the horizon now and in the direction of the Nile, but this opening was shaded by the blocks beside it and received no direct light.
I felt within a jacket pocket for the matchbox Howard had given me with the lamp. I found it amongst the loose crayons and bit of bread. I set the lamp down to strike a match and light the floating wick. It wasn't quite like lamps I'd used as a child—electric lamps being more common in London by the time I move there—but the principle of there being reservoir, oil and wick was the same.
The lamp gave off a golden glow, softer at the sides where the light passed through oil and translucent alabaster. I held it firmly in my right hand as I felt along the wall with my left. Both David and I had to stoop, or duck our heads to continue. The floor and the entirety of the passage sloped downward. I didn't use geometry much, except maybe in translating measurements to patterns or, lately, in art lessons, but I estimated the slope was less than 30 degrees.
"It's strange," David whispered, perhaps inspired to quiet by the close space, "an entrance on the north. Cathedrals are usually aligned to the east. The causeways and temples on the site are roughly east-west. Yet one has to move to the north side to enter."
"I never thought about it." My voice echoed from the stone walls, and I lowered it. "Do they do it to let light in the stained glass, do you mean?"
"Yes. In line with the rising sun," David replied as we continued to descend.
"But, the sun and stars change where they rise through the year."
"A structure with intentional alignment is most often aligned to sun rise or set on either the equinoxes or one of the solstices, as Stonehenge or Newgrange."
"We had a lesson about Stonehenge in school. It's an ancient stone circle over near Salisbury. They did a restoration there."
"It's likely as old as these pyramids," David said, "It's strange to hear so much worth placed on the traditions of Solomon, when his people first had to come out of Egypt, where we find ancient stone temples, and these are not alone in the world."
"The king in The Bible?" I asked.
David did not reply, as a bright bluish light appeared below us and a voice called out, "There you are."
"Hello," David called. The voices echoed. "We stopped to take some photographs."
We shortly came to a junction of tunnels. Our passage continued below, but here there was a change in the ceiling angle and off-colored stone marked perhaps some blocked passage above, yet to our right was a more roughly cut passage leading to a space where the rest of our party stood: Nikola holding one of his induction bulbs, then Howard with a map, then Murphy and Prim. Alpha and Thierry were out of view from my position.
"Excellent idea," Howard said, "always best to document an expedition."
We shuffled position, as Howard and Nikola came down to our descending passage, and I moved up to their tunnel.
Murphy glanced up from his work, unfolding the stand for one of the coils. I could see the almost arched ceiling of the tunnel, as Prim held a lamp. Alpha was in shirtsleeves and trousers, having removed his maghrebi style gallibeyya. Thierry looked as casual as I had ever seen him without his coat and hat, discreetly tapping at the stone with the ferrule of his closed umbrella.
"Shall we go up or down from here?" he asked.
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Chapter 74.
The audio media is the "main theme" from the movie The Descent; I believe the composer is David Julyan.
The image top of the page is in the public domain. It is from the scrapbook collection of William Vaughn Tupper and imaged by the Boston Public Library; the photo on the imaged page is credited to Constantine Zangaki. The date is circa 1860-1890.
The images above (below chapter text) are in the public domain and from a collection of photos by John and Morton Edgar in 1910. The two are both titled in French as "herses de granite dans la pyramide de Khéops" but show the granite plugs from different angles.
Also, note that there are older stone structures in the world than those David mentions, but as a character he may not be informed of these and/or they may not have been re-discovered at the time of this story. The subject will possibly come up again later.
The next and 75th chapter is Abyss and I'm posting it soon!