Chapter Thirty-Four
It was late afternoon by the time Nate finished gathering all his data and putting it into an easily digestible format.
He figured that if his friends and Ana were willing to risk their lives for his research, then he at least owed them all the facts.
Plus, he hoped they would see the utility of it and be as convinced as he was.
Nate called them all together in the common area and used an HDMI port to plug his laptop into the television that was set up for entertainment purposes.
Wally knew a lot of what he was about to say, having been along for most of the ride.
Shane knew less, and he figured Tim and Ana would know practically nothing, so he started at the beginning.
He described the legend of the lost city of Ubar, how it was relayed through religious texts, oral history, and fiction.
He talked about the mention in One Thousand and One Nights of Iram of the Pillars, how King Shaddad bin ‘Ad constructed a great and prosperous city in the desert, how he had defied God, and how the city had paid the ultimate price for it. He quoted:
“When he was at a single stage’s distance from the city, God sent against him and his fellow unbelievers a cry from heaven, where He reigns in power, and the terrible sound killed them all.
Neither Shaddad nor any of his companions reached the city or came within sight of it.
God blotted out all traces of the road that led to it, but the city itself is still where it was built and will remain there until the Last Judgment. ”
“Sure,” Tim chirped up, “but that’s just a story. There are lots of stories.”
“It’s also written in the Qur’an,” Ana added helpfully.
“That’s right,” Nate agreed, and quoted again:
“Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with ‘Ad—with Iram—who had lofty pillars, the likes of which were not produced in all the land?”
“Okay, but reading it in a holy text doesn’t make it true,” Tim argued. “The Bible is full of fantastic stories that no one can prove.”
“True, but most of the locations in the Bible are real enough. You can argue about the events, but the places where they occurred aren’t disputed.
Biblical archaeology finds more evidence every year that proves the Old Testament to be a fairly accurate historical record.
And the Qur’an was written centuries later.
” Tim nodded in understanding, and Nate continued.
“We also can’t ignore the importance of oral traditions.
There are many societies in Africa, the Pacific, and even Native American tribes that have handed down history for centuries through stories.
Even the Bible was oral history before it was written word, and much of it has been corroborated with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In Arabia, local tribes handed down stories of Ubar.
They talked about its great wealth and its great destruction. ”
“How trustworthy are your sources?” Shane asked.
“Does Captain Ahmed work for you?” Nate countered.
Shane shrugged. “I’ll allow it.”
“Good. So this was evidence enough to encourage British explorers in the early twentieth century to go in search of the city.”
“Naturally,” Wally chimed in. “Who else was going to have the bollocks to do it?”
“As I was saying. First up was Bertram Thomas in 1930. While unsuccessful, he was the first Westerner to cross the Rub’ al Khali.
This was his route, here.” He put up an overlay of the explorer’s route on a map of the Empty Quarter.
“Through his personal notes that I had the opportunity to study at Cambridge, he encountered a group of local Bedouins, here.” A marker showed on the map.
“These locals had treasures that Thomas could barely believe. Gold, jewels, coins. When he asked where they had gotten them, they explained that such treasures occasionally washed up in the wells.” He clicked and a picture of a coin showed up.
“Ahmed has a family heirloom that was obtained in the same area, in the same way.”
“What type of coin is that?” Ana asked, leaning forward.
“Well, that’s the interesting thing,” Nate said. “The coin is from ancient Mesopotamia. There is cuneiform stamped on it, which is widely considered the first written language. It’s likely at least four thousand years old.”
Shane whistled. “That has to be worth a pretty penny.”
“It is,” Nate agreed, “although its value is more than monetary. As early as five thousand years ago, the Sumerians were impressing cuneiform on clay tablets, but its use on metal coinage is virtually unheard-of.”
“So how’s this relate to Ubar?” Wally asked, and Nate realized he was getting sidetracked.
“Right. Ahmed’s relatives found it in the same location, nearly a thousand miles away from ancient Mesopotamia.”
“So it had to travel there somehow,” Wally said.
“A trade route,” Shane completed the thought.
“Yes!” Nate snapped his fingers and pointed at him like a proud teacher would his star pupil for answering a question correctly. “Stories aside, a trading post that allowed for a route through the Rub’ al Khali would have grown immensely wealthy.”
“And Ahmed’s imagery shows the camel trails that prove there was a well-traveled route nearby at some point in history,” Shane elaborated.
Nate was happy that they were catching on quickly. He could feel the excitement building in the room, and he added the camel trail layer to the map.
“Exactly. It would have been difficult and likely not very profitable to risk going through the desolate wasteland of the Arabian Desert without the assurances of a place to rest and water your animals. Now, St. John Philby had the same thought, and in 1932 he set out looking for just such a city. Instead, he found the Wabar craters.” He added Philby’s route to the map with a click.
“Meteorite impacts,” Ana added. “One of only a few in the world that are easily observable.” The geologist in her was beginning to show.
“Right, but that’s not what Philby thought.
He believed he had found a volcano in the desert, and was extremely disappointed at not having found the city.
However, after reviewing his notes at the Royal Geographical Society in London, I discovered that he had also located a well, here.
” It appeared on the map. “A well with a strong current of running water.”
“An underground river!” Ana said excitedly. “One that feeds the aquifers in the area!”
“An underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock,” Wally noted, “for anyone who is curious.”
Ana laughed, and Nate removed the explorers’ routes and added the data from the hydrological survey to the map.
“You got it,” he said to Ana. “This river falls along the point where Philby discovered the well, and likely much farther north from where Thomas’s Bedouins collected their treasures.
If we look at the underground water system that runs south from the well and the intersection with the camel trails, we can surmise that their well was likely on this same system. ”
“Artifacts from the city are washing downstream,” Tim said, suddenly interested.
“In the same river that provided the lifeblood for such a city to exist in the middle of the desert,” Ana added.
“And the location where the river and the camel trails intersect is the search area,” Shane finished the puzzle.
“Precisely,” Nate said with a smile. They all stood staring at the map for several minutes, impressed by how it all tied together.
“So why has nobody put this all together before now?” Tim asked.
“Because nobody had all the pieces before,” Nate replied, not for the first time. “T. E. Lawrence had wanted to launch an expedition, but he died before ever getting the chance. No one else ever launched a legitimate expedition, nor did they have the use of modern technology to assist them.”
“So where is it, the city I mean?” Shane asked. “Underground with the river?”
“The cry from heaven,” Ana said, thinking it through. “The meteorites that created the Wabar craters?”
Nate shrugged. “Could be. It’s as good a guess as any. A cataclysmic event such as that happening in close proximity is a pretty big coincidence. It certainly would account for the city’s disappearance.”
“Wait,” Ana said. “I thought they discovered Ubar back in the 1990s in Oman.”
“Well, they discovered something,” Nate said, feeling a repeat of his thesis proposal coming on.
“Most certainly a trading post on the Incense Trail. But there’s very little to indicate that it’s the real city.
For starters, it doesn’t make a route through the Rub’ al Khali more feasible.
It also fails to take into account all the evidence we just discussed.
When Bertram Thomas’s guide pointed out the road to Ubar, they were standing here down in Oman.
He said that the city was several days northwest from there. ”
“Yeah, but how reliable were his guides?” Shane asked.
“Reliable enough to consistently locate wells for their camels in hundreds of miles of empty desert, without fail.”
“Good enough,” Shane capitulated.
“So what’s the plan, then?” Tim asked, getting up and grabbing the coffeepot to refill his cup. He offered it to Nate.
“No thanks,” Nate said. “I don’t drink coffee.”
“That’s right,” Tim snapped his fingers. “So what now? Do we just go to the area and search?”
“More or less,” Nate responded. “T. E. Lawrence wanted to use airships, figuring he would be able to see more from the air than on the ground. We’re going to do the same, except we’re going to use the drones that Shane here has been nice enough to procure.”
“Top of the line,” Shane added with a wink.
“Okay,” Tim said. “Still a little nuts, but okay.”
“If we find this lost city of treasure, I assume we’ll be splitting the booty evenly?” Wally asked with a grin.