8 Temple of Taposiris Magna
Jonathan didn't stop bickering with Diana about one thing or another throughout the journey. They reached the temple at half-past 8.
"Hey, Children! How was your journey from the hotel to here? We are going to start work from tomorrow," Cepos greeted them.
"Hello, Cepos! The journey is good. We are quite excited about the work," all four of them responded in unison.
"We have arranged almost everything. Since it's quite far from the nearby small living area, we have to cook for ourselves for now," professor Ahmed joined them.
Everyone looked at each other and responded in a dull tone, "alright, professor."
Professor Ahmed laughed at them and said, "we have our Diana here, and I think she knows how to cook."
"I will think twice to drink a cup of boiled water done by her, much less to eat her cooking," Jonathan shouted in horror.
Charles, who was drinking water, spilled on and coughed while Diana glared at him. If looks could kill, Jonathan would be 6 feet beneath the earth.
Professor flicked on Jonathan's head, saying, "shut up and give me your assessments," he asked further.
Cepos showed them nearby tents they have arranged and went out to order servants to prepare food.
Diana picked a tent at the left, also near to the digging area coincidentally. Rupert and Charles decided on right-side tents leaving the middle one to Jonathan.
Professor Ahmed and Cepos shared one tent with two beds while other tents for workers.
Fadil left after dropping them. He will only come back if they need something from the town to visit any nearby places.
Professor Ahmed was going through the thesis when they came out after settling their things.
At half-past 9, everyone gathered for dinner.
"I have read your thesis, and it's quite good. Although the city's history is not required, Alexandria is involved long back from centuries in mummification, so I made you learn about those things," the professor expressed his views while the servants brought dinner.
Everyone nodded and started filling their bowls with the simple dishes prepared by the servants.
"Professor Ahmed, I would like to share some information I got from the local people during our stay in the hotel," Diana said.
Professor signaled to continue to narrate all those rumors and myths that the older man, Osiris, shared with her.
"There are many things like this that don't exist in the book here," commented Cepos.
Nodding their heads, everyone completed their dinner. Since it's nighttime, it's impossible to look at the temple, so they decided to rest for the day.
In his tent, professor Ahmed read their thesis in detail and started making some changes.
In the open desert, everyone slept nicely. At 7'o clock in the morning, workers arrived with cranes.
After waking and getting ready, Diana and Jonathan came out while Cepos guided the workers.
"This temple looks very ancient and built with rare architecture in those days," looking at the ancient construction Jonathan commented.
"Of course, the temple was built to worship nine goddesses here, and the previous archeologists found proof for worshiping sacred animals here," Rupert added.
"There's only half a building left after several invaders invaded this place," Cepos informed them from the back.
The workers started digging around the place that was marked before by the previous archeologists with cranes.
Diana and Jonathan started looking around the place, whereas Rupert and Charles began to set up the pieces of equipment to test the marble professor Ahmed's samples.
Diana went inside the half-demolished temple and started observing everything.
She can see temple walls encrypted in the ancient Egyptian language called 'Middle Egyptian' clearly. She collected some samples for test purposes.
After digging the place for an hour, they found two tombs and informed Professor Ahmed. He gathered all four of them to have a look.
"Wow! We are going to witness a mummy inside the tomb," Jonathan proclaimed loudly.
"Only you can be so excited for that," murmured Rupert and Charles together.
Workers carefully bought both the tombs out of the sand hole. One tomb mainly seemed very attractive, unlike another one.
The tomb is in pure white covered in the silver color border around the corners. Professor collected the samples of the tomb, "Rupert, test this sample and tell us how many years older this tomb is..?"
After bringing the tomb out, Diana, Jonathan, and Rupert started cleaning the tomb carefully. Carles brought the result and gave it to professor Ahmed.
Looking at the test result, professor Ahmed went to discuss something with Cepos.
Meanwhile, Jonathan opened the tomb and found a beautiful coffin in gold and red color. It also has a crown symbol of the Fourth dynasty Pharaohs.
They were astonished and mesmerized to look at the coffin. The coffin is covered with ancient languages' enchantments and engraved with the name "Zosar Isis" after the goddess Isis.
Out of curiosity, Diana opened the coffin. Inside the coffin, they found a dead body lying as if in a deep sleep.
"Look, Diana, jars containing his body parts are missing," Charles commented, looking inside the coffin with utmost care.
Rupert tested the samples and found that the tomb belonged to 2516 BC, when the last pharaoh of the Fourth dynasty, pharaoh Shepseskaf ruled the Egyptian kingdom.
When professor Ahmed came to instruct them on how to examine the coffin, they were already investigating the coffin, so he went to investigate the other coffin.
Suddenly, Diana felt a faint sound coming from the coffin. The coffin is so giant that she missed the sound at first glance; when she lowered her head and placed her ear, she shouted surprisingly,
"Hey, Charles and Jonathan! The heart of this body is still beating the same as ours, come and listen."
What! How can a dead body's heart be beating like ours..?" Charles questioned while Jonathan moved Diana aside, and he lowered himself to hear.
He heard the faint sound of a heartbeat coming from the dead body. It was like a raindrop at the starting of the rain.
The dead body is of a man, precisely a boy who could be between 20-24. Even though he is dead, one can see his facial features and pale skin.
Jonathan looked at the dead body and found something was off from it. The dead body doesn't look like a natural dead body that would make it into a mummy.
He remembered each step involved in the process of mummification, like the back of his hand. The dead body is not covered with linen; instead, it is covered with a thick slack of royal cloth.
There is no enchanted piece of paper found as well as none of his brain tissue. Jonathan immediately called professor Ahmed and asked him to examine the coffin.
Cepos collected all the samples of another tomb and did an examination. Since they have advanced machines for the test, it didn't take much time for them.
After an hour, the test results of the first tomb samples came.
Rupert showed them to Cepos, and he was astonished. He fell with a thud sound with the piece of paper in his hands.
