Chapter 364

Chapter

11

Of the Tomb of the Divine Menkau-Ra; Of the Writing on the Breast of Menkau-Ra; Of the Drawing Forth of the Treasure; Of the Dweller in the Tomb; And of the Flight of Cleopatra and Harmachis From the Holy Place

We stood within a small arched chamber, paved and lined with great blocks of the granite stone of Syene. There before us—hewn from a single mass of basalt shaped like a wooden house and resting on a sphinx with a face of gold—was the sarcophagus of the Divine Menkau-ra.

We stood and gazed in awe, for the weight of the silence and the solemnity of that holy place seemed to crush us. Above us, cubit over cubit in its mighty measure, the pyramid towered up to heaven and was kissed of the night air. But we were deep in the bowels of the rock beneath its base. We were alone……