The Alexandria Connection (36 page)

‘I
’m beginning to understand why Crowley is so keen to get his hands on this,’ Aleta said, breathless with excitement as she examined the papyrus. ‘There are two documents here. The first is the original hieroglyphic record of the calculations done by Pharaoh Khufu’s engineers when they built the Great Pyramid.’ She pointed to the pintail ducks and scarab beetles, and the heading on the first papyrus leaf:
Pyramids – Construction
. ‘But the second document is in Greek, in Euclid’s hand, and I think it might explain the real purpose of the Pyramids of Giza . . .’

‘So this
is
the Euclid Papyrus.’

‘Without a doubt!’

O’Connor listened attentively as Aleta translated Euclid’s Greek and his notes on the engineering calculations. ‘We’re going to have to check this out,’ O’Connor said finally, ‘and the only way to do that is to get inside the Great Pyramid.’

‘Into areas that are well off limits to the public,’ said Aleta.

‘Which means bringing Badawi on board.’

‘Well . . . we were going to do that anyway,’ she reminded him.

‘Yes, although I’d be a lot happier if Badawi kept his deputy out of the picture.’

‘I’ll ensure he sees us alone.’

The next day, Professor Badawi escorted O’Connor and Aleta into his office.

‘We have a confession to make, Hassan, so I hope you won’t be too cross with us,’ Aleta began after Badawi had served tea.

‘How could I possibly be cross with you, my dear?’ the avuncular professor asked, his weathered face softened by his smile.

‘I have reason to believe that your deputy may not be all he seems,’ O’Connor explained.

‘Do you have any evidence for that?’ Badawi asked, his smile vanishing.

‘He’s been in contact with someone in Venice whom the authorities in Washington are watching closely. You’ll have to trust me on this one. If anything is amiss, we’ll try to deal with it quietly so that it doesn’t damage the museum’s reputation. In the meantime, we’d be grateful if you could keep our discussions to yourself.’

Professor Badawi looked at O’Connor long and hard. ‘Doctor Aboud asked to attend this meeting . . . he was none too pleased when he was excluded.’

‘Aboud is a graduate of the Australian National University in Canberra?’

‘A very fine university,’ said Badawi. ‘It has a particularly good reputation for research, and Doctor Aboud gained his doctorate from ANU’s School of Archaeology and Anthropology. He studied the Graeco-Roman period of Egypt and he’s an expert on the works of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. Doctor Aboud is one of the few in the world who have studied the difficult works of Manetho, an Egyptian priest during the reign of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II.’

O’Connor handed Badawi a sanitised version of the NSA report on Aboud. ‘He bought his doctorate from the Degrees and Diplomas Order Centre, a Chinese website operating out of Shenzhen.’

Badawi shook his head in disbelief as he read the promo from the website:

Buy a degree is more and more important for someone couldn’t get a degree from his university. How to buy a degree and where to buy degree that means your choose. Our degree mill will service for you online everyday!

We already have the high-end printing equipment, all kinds of import the original paper, mature processing technology and perfect service system. No matter from watermark, seal, or hot stamping or laser, we can do it 100% of similar! And you don’t have to sit for endless examinations and do assignments.

‘According to the Chinese Degrees and Diplomas Order Centre, and you can look their website up for yourself, ANU is a particularly fine university, and I’m sure ANU will be delighted to find it’s being advertised as having over 200 books in their library. Since ANU actually has five libraries, that’s forty books in each,’ O’Connor said, unable to stifle a wry smile.

Badawi stared at the report, and the colour drained from his face. ‘I’m shocked. But there have been occasions when I’ve wondered about some of his remarks. Where did you get this information?’ he asked finally.

‘My turn to come clean, Professor. Let’s just say I’m not what I might seem either. I do have a doctorate in biochemistry and lethal viruses – won with a lot of blood, sweat and tears in the laboratories of Trinity College Dublin – but when I’m not with Aleta on her archaeological pursuits, I work for the United States government. I can’t tell you much more than that, other than to say we’re worried that Aboud may be about to drag the museum into an unholy international political row. I’ve always had my suspicions, which is one of the reasons we haven’t been able to be totally honest with you. Now that we’ve isolated Aboud, I’ll leave Aleta to bring you up to speed on our archaeological investigations.’

‘I can only apologise, Hassan, but we truly are on your side.’

The old professor’s smile returned, albeit wanly. ‘If it were anyone else but you, Aleta, I might have difficulty believing anything any more. Some more tea?’

Aleta nodded and took a deep breath. ‘Firstly, the photo we showed you of the original papyrus with Euclid’s notations and the Flower of Life wasn’t bought in Lima. It was a photograph of a very old papyrus we found in the Souk el-Attarine.’ Badawi’s eyes widened as Aleta recounted her discovery in the basement of the papyrus store in Alexandria and their subsequent dive on the ruins in Alexandria harbour.

‘You’ve found the lost Library of Alexandria!’

‘There’s every possibility, but you can understand why we wanted to keep this quiet. If we’d announced this, the world’s media would be all over you and the Department of Antiquities like a rash. But when we’re ready, we would like
you
to make the announcement.’

‘When you’re ready?’

‘We’ve also discovered a passage off the holy well at Bir el-Samman.’ Aleta quickly brought Badawi up to date on the discovery of the subterranean cavern.

‘The Hall of Records?’ Badawi wondered excitedly.

‘Quite possibly, but even more importantly, we were able to bring two urns out without Aboud or the Muslim elders being any the wiser.’

‘Or me!’

‘Again, we’d like you to make the announcement of this discovery, Hassan, but not yet. One of those urns contained an original copy of Euclid’s
The Elements
, but the other,’ said Aleta, opening her attaché case and withdrawing a rigid protective folder, ‘is even more exciting.’ She carefully laid the ancient papyri leaves on Badawi’s desk.

Badawi reached for a magnifying glass and studied the documents. ‘I think,’ he said, after what seemed like an age, ‘that you’ve found the Euclid Papyrus. What an incredible discovery.’ He paused and took a deep breath. ‘In all my years of Egyptology, I’ve never seen anything like this. It will completely extinguish the widely accepted notion that the Great Pyramid was Khufu’s tomb. If this papyrus is correct, Khufu’s engineers were way more advanced than we’ve ever given them credit.’

‘There’s no doubt that the Egyptian engineers were amazingly successful in aligning the pyramids with the earth and the Cygnus constellation,’ said Aleta. ‘And as you and I both know, even today, the Great Pyramid is not only the most accurately aligned construction on the planet but it’s still by far the largest and most precise as well. We’ll have to find a way to explain this to the average person. Not only did the pharaoh’s engineers incorporate the Fibonacci sequence, but when you take the height of the Great Pyramid compared to its base, it’s precisely the same relationship as a circle has to its circumference. The extremely concise side angle of 51° 51’ 14.3” means the mathematical value of
Pi
is contained within the pyramid’s shape.’

‘Yes,’ Badawi agreed. ‘You may not be aware, Doctor O’Connor, but in 1859, an Englishman, John Taylor, published some astonishing findings on the Great Pyramid. The discovery that
Pi
was embedded in its construction prompted Taylor to conclude that not only was there a relationship between the height of the pyramid to its base, but the height-to-base ratio was the same as the distance between the centre of the earth to the poles. He found that the “inch” Khufu’s engineers had used was just .001 larger than today’s British inch. But more importantly, there are 25 pyramid inches in a cubit, 365.24 cubits in the base of the Great Pyramid, and it’s beyond coincidence that 365.24 is the precise number of days in a calendar year. The pyramid inch is one 500-millionth of the earth’s axis of rotation, so there’s absolutely no doubt that Khufu’s engineers were not only aware of the geometry of our planet – their measurement systems were based on that.’

‘It is extraordinary,’ O’Connor agreed, ‘but the question is, how much did Khufu’s engineers know about frequency resonance and the possibility that a pyramid could be built with a natural vibration frequency? Euclid seems in no doubt, but if he’s correct, there will be evidence inside the pyramid and to check, we’re going to need your help, Hassan. Those areas are off-limits.’

Badawi nodded. ‘That’s not a problem. I’m not without influence in this town. You can start as early as tomorrow morning if you wish, or perhaps it would be better if we went into the pyramid after it’s closed to the public?’

Aboud took his headphones off, locked them in the drawer in his office, opened his safe and extracted the mobile phone he’d been given by Area 15.

‘He’s pretty agile for his age,’ O’Connor said softly, as he and Aleta followed Badawi into the ancient entrance of the Great Pyramid. The ‘Robber’s Tunnel’ dug by Caliph al-Mamum’s workers in 820 AD had now been used by millions of tourists, but Badawi was heading for areas within that were sealed off to the public.

From a distance, Aboud focused his binoculars and watched the trio disappear inside.

‘Yes, he is agile, and he knows every block of limestone in here.’

O’Connor grinned mischievously. ‘I wonder what the pyramid equivalent of the mile high club is? I’ll bet it’s been done,’ he said, a wistful note in his voice.

‘Stop it . . . we can save that activity for the Montgomery suite club,’ she whispered.

‘Now that would be an interesting list!’

‘But only if you behave!’

They followed Badawi along the rough-walled passage and up some narrow stone steps that wound their way around the original granite portcullis blocks that the Egyptian engineers had set in place to seal access to the upper chambers.

‘Have you been inside before, Doctor O’Connor?’ Badawi asked as they climbed steeply toward the Grand Gallery.

‘Once . . . but a long time ago, and there were a lot of tourists.’

Their voices echoed off some of the two million limestone blocks used in the pyramid’s construction. At the start of the Grand Gallery, two ramps flanked the gallery’s sides, but instead of climbing any further, Badawi led the way between them, down into a stone passageway that took them to the so-called Queen’s Chamber. Most Egyptologists had agreed that it was highly unlikely any queen had ever been buried there.

‘It’s smaller than I expected,’ O’Connor said, looking around the stone room with its pitched limestone ceiling and bare walls.

‘Yes . . . about six metres square, and about five metres high,’ Badawi said.

‘And there’s the residues on the walls,’ O’Connor said, shining his powerful torch onto salt encrustations.

‘There’s been a lot of speculation about the salt,’ said Badawi, ‘and it’s not only been found here, but along the entrance passage as well. Some, undoubtedly of the Christian persuasion, have put it down to the great flood in the Bible, but I think we can rule that one out, as there are no water marks on the exterior of the pyramid,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘No one has produced a plausible explanation but that might be about to change.’

O’Connor was suddenly energised. His in-depth knowledge of the chemistry involved gave him an even greater insight into the revelation. ‘According to the Euclid Papyrus, the Queen’s Chamber was used to produce hydrogen. The existence of the salt then makes sense.’

‘I’m not following,’ said Aleta.

‘The easiest way to produce hydrogen, or H
2
, is to displace it from an acid. Hydrochloric acid and a hydrated mixture of zinc chloride would work perfectly.’ O’Connor pulled out a notebook and drew Aleta and Badawi the basic formula for the reaction.