Imhotep

 

The day of his arrival found Stacey prowling one of the most important sites in all Egypt – the third dynasty step pyramid complex of King Djoser at Saqqara. His foray into an area where archaeological exploration was a never-ending task ought to conjure up something of interest for his readers. Would a mass grave speak of ritual slaughter? Did these people possess dark powers since lost to the world? Would beings from another planet have somewhere left their mark? He expected his readers, the gullible and the credulous, would be out there drooling.

Mike Stacey had freewheeled about Egypt and parts of the Middle East for years. From the solitude of numerous back-street hotels he had reported to the popular media on the real and imagined mysteries of the ancient world. He recognised no dividing line between the two, but hard facts were not what his readers craved. Had the over-publicised ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ not already been established in the public mind, dapper, hawk-faced Stacey would have invented it. His earlier offering entitled, Was Pharaoh an alien? made no impression on the responsible media but had notched up a profitable airing where this brand of sensationalism held greater appeal. 

Camera swinging from his shoulder, Stacey had infiltrated a group of tourists and their English-speaking guide where they gathered in raw heat beneath a cloudless, late morning sky.

‘So as we stand before it,’ announced their guide, adjusting mirrored sunglasses whilst his party gazed dutifully up at the decaying structure that had basked through some forty seven centuries, ‘I can tell you that the great stepped pyramid and the part-restored walls and buildings we see all about us represent the first large-scale stone architecture anywhere in the ancient world.’

They gazed about, hands raised to shade their eyes. One slouch-hatted man, wiping the sweat from his forehead, said, ‘You mentioned the guy who designed it all – this, er -.’

‘Imhotep,’ smiled the guide. ‘Yes, he was the king’s chief minister. He was a very important man with titles of his own.’

‘Yeah, Imhotep – that’s the guy. You said he was more or less as famous as the old king himself - so what do we know about him?’

‘An interesting question,’ replied the guide, ‘but sadly we have no more knowledge of Imhotep than we do of the pharaoh. And famous as Imhotep was in his own day, he became even more so throughout Egypt as time went by – a legend, in fact. He was credited with supernatural powers. Two thousand years later he was worshipped as a god of wisdom, writing and healing. The classical Greeks identified him with Asklepios, their own god of healing and medicine. Imhotep may be forgotten now but for over two and a half millennia he was one of the most revered men in ancient Egypt.’

‘Do we know,’ asked a woman, fanning her face with a guidebook, ‘what happened to him or where he’s buried?’

‘We’ve seen a good few pyramids and tombs on this tour,’ added the first man, ‘but nobody mentioned his.’

Stacey listened hard. Could this be an opening?

‘You would think,’ replied the guide, ‘such a clever and resourceful man would ensure his own preservation after death but his final resting place has never been found. A British Egyptologist, Walter Emery, searched this area from 1964 until his death in 1971. He always maintained Imhotep’s tomb must be somewhere hereabouts but he never did find it. They are still looking. In fact there’s an important dig not far from here. So who knows? Maybe one day -.’

For Stacey the headlines were already flashing: ‘Will Dead Magician Reveal Ancient Secrets?’

***

Two fans creaked lazily above their heads as they sat around the table. Beyond the window, silhouetted against a darkening sky, arose the great step pyramid of a once great king.

‘We’ve reason to believe,’ announced stocky, round-faced Don McKenzie, head of the archaeological team, ‘that another tomb lies to the south-west of Djoser’s complex. It’s concealed deep beneath the remaining northward extension of another complex, that of Djoser’s successor, Sekhemkhet.’

‘And what do we know about him?’ asked Stacey who, after considerable pleading had been allowed access to an on-site office meeting that consisted of three members of McKenzie’s team and two officials from the Supreme Council of Antiquities based in Cairo. Maybe they wouldn’t reveal anything of world-shattering importance but Stacey was not one to dismiss routine matters when they might conceal the pearl of a revelation. The two smartly dressed officials were out of place, the air within the cluttered office was charged with unspoken words.

‘Not a lot,’ replied McKenzie, all too familiar with Stacey’s disdain of professional values. ‘Sekhemkhet had big ideas but only reigned as pharaoh for six or seven years and we’ve no clue as to where he ended up. His pyramid complex was intended to outdo that of Djoser but it never got completed. It looks to have been designed by the same architect since Imhotep’s name was found on the north enclosure wall. Like Djoser’s monument, it contained a large number of subterranean storage magazines: over a hundred and thirty in fact, as well as several galleries and the burial chamber. All of ’em were empty, including the alabaster sarcophagus, though oddly, the seals were still intact. So there’s something for you to elaborate on, Mr Stacey.’ A grin spread across McKenzie’s face. ‘Maybe the poor bugger got himself abducted!’ 

‘So this new tomb,’ queried Stacey, outwardly ignoring the abduction remark, ‘could it be where they placed him – a kind of quick and easy solution before the next guy stepped in to take over?’

McKenzie hard-eyed him then replied, ‘As I said, we don’t know at this point who the tomb, if that’s what it is, might belong to. It’s possibly a relative of Sekhemkhet and it’s probably long since been looted. That’s all we can tell you at present, Mr Stacey.’ Gesturing at the door he added, ‘Now if you’ll excuse us, matey, we have tomorrow’s work schedule to discuss.’

They watched in silence as Stacey scraped back his chair, got up and walked to the door.

McKenzie waited long seconds after the door had closed then remarked to the officials, ‘The less anyone says to that bloke the better. Now he’s out of the way I’ll update our progress. We’ve cleared all remaining infill material and reached the bottom of the shaft. The walls are roughly dressed all the way down. The shaft is little over two metres square and getting on for fifty metres deep. That’s a lot deeper than the shafts beneath Djoser’s pyramid or Sekhemkhet’s might-have-been. We recovered a number of votary objects from the loose material and as you’re aware, these have been recorded and delivered to the Cairo Museum. As we reported early last week, the remaining three metres of infill consisted of squared blocks of solid stone.’

He glanced at the door in case Stacey still loitered, then continued. ‘The top layer was intended to look like a paved floor - as if this was a dead end and the work never completed. In one wall they’d carved out a false door with the name of Sekhemkhet above it. Opposite this a horizontal gallery had been started then abandoned by the builders after less than a couple of metres progress. If we’d not made last minute soundings in that floor we’d have fallen for the trick and sealed the shaft off as a dead end. It wasn’t until this afternoon we managed to hoist out the last of those blocks and take a proper look down there. Our friend Stacey was hovering nearby pretending to be a tourist. We usually keep the likes of him away from working sites but at that point we didn’t think we had much.’

‘But now you do,’ said one of the officials. ‘Is what you have found of some importance?’

‘Once the shaft was cleared,’ McKenzie continued, ‘two of us were lowered all the way down to the solid rock base. We discovered a bricked-up recess in the south side that had been disguised with grey plaster. We proceeded to clear this, sent up the rubble but left the bricks stacked against an adjacent wall to serve as a bench. Behind those bricks there’s a wooden door. We’re certain it conceals a passage or a chamber.’ McKenzie opened the laptop computer. ‘On the door is an unbroken clay seal bearing hieroglyphs. Here’s what we photographed.’

***

‘Those guys in suits weren’t around for small talk,’ muttered Stacey lighting a cigarette. He blew smoke into the warm night air then, perched on the remains of an ancient limestone wall, continued to observe the site office. ‘There’s something big going on. The amount of stuff they pulled out of that shaft, and those stone blocks – this one I’ll be sticking with!’ Before the cigarette was finished he was retracing his footsteps back to the cabin. 

***

The screen lit up. McKenzie stabbed keys and an image appeared.

‘Ah, I see it clearly,’ remarked the first official as both peered closer to the screen.

‘Yes,’ said the other, ‘it is obviously the owner’s name but what does it say?’

‘Imhotep,’ replied McKenzie, casually. Then he hesitated to observe their expressions. ‘We believe this could be his burial place. It may extend beneath the pyramid site of Sekhemkhet. It might have been planned that way even before work on the king’s complex was started.’

‘Imhotep,’ breathed the second official. ‘So - a tomb beneath a tomb - and it could be his.’

‘It could,’ confirmed McKenzie, ‘and we must consider the possibility that it is intact. The Director of Antiquities should be informed soon as possible.’

‘If this is the tomb of Imhotep,’ declared the first official, raising his hands, ‘it will be the find of the century. Yes, we will inform Dr Fergani at once. This site must be subject to the very highest security. It must be strictly out of bounds to all except those directly involved in the work of excavation. We will have no press or media of any kind there until the Director himself permits it.’

‘That’s what I like to hear,’ responded McKenzie, ‘especially with Mike Stacey sniffing about. This could be a more important find than King Tut and if the media get onto it we’ll have ’em pouring in by the cartload. On the other hand if it proves to be empty then they’ll be more than happy to lay on the ridicule.’

The computer was visible from outside one of the cabin windows. They were unaware of eyes studying the image on the screen. Unaware, too, of the camera recording it.

***

In the subdued light of the hotel room the screen glowed. A volume on Egyptology lay illuminated by a small lamp on Stacey’s desk. ‘Jesus Christ,’ he breathed, ‘if they’ve found what I think they’ve found then -.’ He switched off the computer, pushed aside the book and stepped over to the window where he had a view of the city’s lights and chaotic traffic.

Early the following morning he returned to Saqqara with a busload of tourists. Through binoculars he studied the posts and wire netting in the process of erection under the watchful presence of two police guards. Inside the enclosure stood McKenzie with two of his assistants, all wearing hardhats. Next to a gleaming black limousine stood a group of five smartly suited Egyptian officials.

Stacey watched them lower one of the archaeologists together with some equipment down into the shaft. A half hour passed before the empty cradle returned, allowing McKenzie and his remaining man to descend. Three of the officials returned to their limousine and drove away. The remaining two retired from the heat of day to the site office with another of McKenzie’s team.

***

The cradle had been drawn up a short way to allow for more working space. At one side of it was suspended an electric lamp to compensate for a lack of daylight reaching the base of the shaft from the small square of blue sky high above. Should the winch operating the cradle jam, their only means of getting out was a series of metal ladders bolted at stages to the wall of the shaft. They could not call for assistance. There was no mobile phone signal. Close by the ladders ran an electric cable. This fed the hand-held console that assistant Steve Manning, its operator, had also plugged into the laptop computer placed nearby on the makeshift brick bench. ‘Christ,’ he mumbled, bending to switch on both console and computer, ‘this isn’t the easiest place to work.’

‘Think yourself lucky,’ responded McKenzie, ‘those bloody officials didn’t insist on coming down here with us. Who needs ’em!’

‘Wouldn’t be enough room with all this gear,’ remarked second assistant, Craig Arnold, checking his camera.

During that morning, with a half hour break on the surface, they removed the clay seal with minimal damage than meticulously chipped the plaster away to free the door. A blaze of light accompanied each stage of the operation as Craig recorded it. They stared at the door a while then, with reverential care, McKenzie eased it back on its pivots to a grating sound and whisper of air. Set into timber frame and lintel, the door consisted of plain vertical boards held together by horizontal battens.

Beyond the door lay a gallery of utter, intimidating blackness. 

The light of their torches revealed a stone passage hardly two metres in height, pierced at half its length on both sides by a doorway. Either side of each doorway were relief carvings, which, because of the narrow angle of view, could not be resolved. The passage, entirely free of debris, appeared to make an abrupt left turn at its far end.

‘Looks as if this bloke knew what he was doing,’ declared McKenzie. ‘And deep down as it is, he must have considered one day someone would find the entrance. It reminds me of those movies where they find a lost tomb full of mantraps. Bloody weird.’

‘That’s it,’ grinned Steve, ‘pits full of sharpened stakes, boulders that roll out to crush you and spikes poking down from the ceiling.’ His levity failed to disguise an underlying nervousness.

‘Let’s hope none of ’em are still working,’ quipped Craig, though he shared the other’s unease.

McKenzie reflected their feelings as he stared down the passage. ‘It gives me the creeps,’ he announced. ‘All of a sudden I feel I’m in the wrong business.’

‘I know what you mean,’ admitted Craig. ‘Now that door’s open something tells me we should never have come down here. I was too damned hot before – now I’m getting the shivers. Must be the cold air spilling out of that gallery.’

Their voices, once confined by the walls of the shaft, reverberated within the gallery.

‘Don’t fret, mate,’ assured Steve, ‘young Snoopy here will be doing the dirty work.’

The robot, a small, tracked, black beetle-like machine, was equipped with laser rangefinder, lights and swivel-mounted stereo camera. It also carried ground sensors. It was attached to his console by a thin wire that would reel out as it went along.

‘She’s ready,’ announced Steve glancing up from the console. ‘Stand away from the door so we can let her through.’ The machine hummed with life. LEDs glowed. Its diminutive headlamps shone brightly. The camera lenses rotated back and forth then its operator announced, ‘Right, we are cleared for take-off.’ As the robot whirred across the threshold and entered the gallery he added, ‘Ah - her rangefinder gives us nine metres twenty before the passage turns.’

‘OK, Steve,’ said McKenzie, gazing over his shoulder at the computer screen and seeing what the robot saw, ‘have her nose about those two rooms first then we’ll see what’s around the corner.’ As the robot continued on into the gallery he added, ‘Great – we could be the first humans to get near the place in nearly five thousand years and here’s a bloody machine doing the sightseeing.’

‘Rather her than me,’ muttered Craig as the robot turned into the left hand room. ‘What’re we seeing?’ he asked, peering between the other two.

‘Looks like an ante-room,’ replied Steve. ‘Not very big. Ah – there’s a statue in the far corner. It’s a human form in mummy wrappings and a skull cap?’

‘The god, Ptah,’ confirmed McKenzie. ‘A popular bloke in those days.’

‘What else are we seeing?’ asked Craig.

‘Jars,’ replied McKenzie, ‘decorated wooden chests, more jars, ornaments, still more bloody jars and what looks like a lot of furniture – most of it dismantled. It looks intact, though. Can’t see any dust, sand or footprints. Even if there’s nothing else down here, a find of this age is quite something.’

‘Fantastic,’ breathed Craig, feeling they and the robot had intruded into a forbidden place.

The plain-walled room and its contents drifted across the computer screen and the operator said, ‘We’ve recorded a three-sixty degree sweep. Shall I take her across to the other room?’

‘Better had, mate,’ answered McKenzie. ‘It’s only a preliminary survey and we don’t have too much time. Fergani will want it beamed direct to his office once we’ve some idea what we’re in for. I ’ope he appreciates lots of jars.’

‘He’ll insist on being the first official down here as soon as he knows it’s safe,’ remarked Craig. ‘Kudos and all that.’

The right-hand room was smaller but also proved to have plain walls, against which had been carefully placed more jars and chests. It was what lay at the far end of the room that caused McKenzie to gasp aloud, ‘Stop her right there! Look at that!’

‘More jars?’ queried the second assistant.

‘No, Craig, mummies – three of ’em,’ replied McKenzie.’

The screen showed a trio of figures, each wrapped in part-decayed, grey bandages, each resting upright against the wall in an open casket of plain timber. Three more empty caskets stood nearby.

‘No fancy coffins – just propped up there,’ observed Craig. ‘Sacrificial victims d’you think?’

McKenzie replied, ‘Wouldn’t like to guess, mate. As far as we know, human sacrifice in royal burials ended in the previous dynasty. But this – well -. Look, we’d better keep going so we can get out of here sooner rather than later.’

‘I’ll opt for sooner,’ muttered Steve.

Emerging from the second room, the robot continued along to the end of the passage. On the screen its lights illuminated a blank wall where the gallery turned. The robot changed direction, disappeared around the corner then stopped.

‘Sealed wooden doors straight ahead of her,’ said McKenzie. ‘Carved and decorated with hieroglyphs. That must lead to the main burial chamber but we’re not going to find out what’s in there until one of us goes through to open them.’

‘You can volunteer, Don,’ said Craig with an off-the-shelf smile.

‘Shall I send her any further?’ asked Steve, his hand poised over the joystick. ‘Those doors are four metres ahead but I don’t see anything in the way.’

McKenzie glanced at his watch. ‘We ought to leave off now. The people upstairs will be busting a gut to see what we’ve found and this’ll generate more bloody meetings. Bring our Snoopy back and we’ll call it a day. We can leave most of the gear where it is.’

The robot reappeared, its lamps shining directly at them as a pair of malignant glowing eyes. They called down the cradle and were soon ascending toward welcome daylight.

***

Camera at the ready, Stacey watched them approach the gateway in the fence where stood the two armed guards. ‘Hey, you guys!’ he called as they passed through. ‘What gives? What did you find in there?’

McKenzie, laptop in hand, paused to reply, ‘Sorry, mate, but there’s nothing to wet your pants over. Nothing we can tell anyone at this time.’

The two officials from the site office were already waiting close by but Stacey persisted. ‘Is it the tomb of Imhotep? Is it intact? Just give me a “yes” or a “no,” can’t you?’

McKenzie ignored him, muttering, ‘How the hell did he guess that?’

Stacey turned back to the fence. A portable cabin had been set up behind it a few metres from the shaft. For a long time he stared at this, convinced there was a scoop to be had here. A big scoop.