Seven Ancient Wonders - Matthew Reilly [128]
I want to know the length, height and breadth of this hall.’
Koenig did so.
After a minute, he reported: ‘It is 192 metres long, and 160metres wide at the widest point of the tee. Height of the cavern above the central junction is . . . 135 metres.’
Wizard snuffed a laugh.
Koenig turned. ‘What is so funny?’
‘Let me guess,’ Wizard said. ‘That canopy over the sarcophagus, the one with the twisted columns, it’s 29 metres high.’
Koenig did the computations with his laser surveying gear . . . and turned to Wizard in surprise. ‘It is 29 metres in height exactly. How could you know this?’
Wizard said, ‘Because this cavern has the exact same dimensions as St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.’
Judah swung to face del Piero, who shrank even lower, if that was at all possible.
Wizard went on, ‘If everything in the Roman Catholic Church is a reinvention of Egyptian Sun-worship, then why should St Peter’s be any different? Its dimensions are simply a replication of this sacred place: the resting place of the most prized Piece of the Capstone, the top Piece.’
They proceeded to the great altar at the focal point of the †-shaped hall, where they beheld the gold-and-glass coffin.
Through the glass, they saw only white powdery dust—the remains of the greatest warrior ever known, the man who had ordered the Pieces of the Capstone to be separated and scattered around the then-known world.
Alexander the Great.
A bronze Macedonian helmet and a lustrous silver sword rested upon the layer of white dust.
And sticking up from the middle of the dust-layer—as if it had once been laid upon the dead man’s chest, only to see that chest erode over the course of two millennia—was a tiny apex of gold.
A tip of a small golden pyramid.
The top Piece.
Without preamble, Judah ordered the coffin opened, and four of his men stepped forward, grabbed a corner each.
Del Piero started forward, ‘For pity’s sake, do take care!’
The men ignored him, removed the glass lid of the coffin roughly.
Judah stepped forward, and with everyone watching tensely, reached in, dipped his fingers into the remains of Alexander the Great, and pulled from them. . .
. . . the top Piece of the Golden Capstone.
Pyramidal in shape, with a base the size of a square paperback book, it radiated power.
More than that.
It radiated a power and an artistry and a knowledge beyond anything mankind had ever devised.
It was beyond man, beyond the limits of human knowledge.
The crystal in its peak glittered like a diamond. This crystal array bored down the spine of the gold mini-pyramid, reappearing at the base.
Judah gazed at it adoringly.
He now held in his possession all seven Pieces of the Golden Capstone, something no man had done since Alexander the Great.
He grinned.
‘It’s time to capture the power of Ra. Tartarus will arrive over Giza at noon. To Giza, and a thousand years of power.’
GIZA, EGYPT
20 MARCH, 2006
THE DAY OF TARTARUS
THE GREAT PYRAMID AT GIZA
It is perhaps the only structure on Earth known by name to every single member of the human race.
The Great Pyramid.
The most common misconception about the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World is that the three pyramids at Giza comprise a single Wonder.
This is not the case.
While Khafre’s and Menkaure’s additional pyramids are certainly impressive monuments, only one pyramid is known as the Great one: that of Khufu (or Cheops, as the Greeks called him). It is this pyramid alone that comprises the Wonder.
In a word, it is breathtaking.
Its dimensions are staggering: 137 metres high, while each of its base sides is 140 metres long. With the addition of its missing Capstone—lost in antiquity—perfect symmetry would be returned and it would once again resume its original height of 140 metres and its intended shape.
It is estimated to weigh over 2 million tons, and yet, despite this unimaginable bulk, it contains within its mass the most intricate and beautiful passageways, all built with an exactness that defies belief.
It has outlasted pharaohs and kings, tribal wars and world wars,