Chapter Sixty
Ubar
A third pair of golden doors swung open, and light flooded into the entryway of the palace.
It failed to penetrate the thick darkness beyond, and Nate clicked on his flashlight for illumination.
He shone it left and right and realized that they were in some type of atrium.
It was long and narrow and flanked on either side by golden statues.
“Look at these handsome fellows,” Shane said as they walked through the pantheon of sculptures.
“Who are they?” Ana asked.
“No idea,” Nate answered. “Athtar, Bel, Nabu… could be any of the ancient deities. This was almost certainly a polytheistic society.”
After passing through the room, the space opened into an extremely large chamber.
It was impressive even by modern standards and must have measured a hundred meters square.
Enormous columns lined every side, holding up the substantial weight of the roof above, which was capped by a large dome with a crack running through it.
Nate’s face was one of shock and amazement.
“What is it?” Ana asked.
“The dome. The sheer weight of it would require a miraculous feat of engineering. It must be a drum and dome configuration like the one constructed for the Pantheon in Rome. The cylindrical tower contains the dome, which is designed in such a way that the measurements of the thickness of concrete are proportionally thicker the farther down it goes. But the Pantheon would have been built nearly two millennia after this.”
“And they didn’t have concrete,” Ana said.
“No, they didn’t. Or shouldn’t have, but the road outside tells a different story. It seems like more evidence of a very advanced civilization down here.”
He forced himself to tear his eyes from the impressive dome.
“We’ll have time to study later to our hearts’ content; first we need to focus on finding a way out.
Wally, go left, Shane, you take right. Ana and I will head up the middle.
Meet back here in ten minutes, whether you find anything or not. ”
They synced their watches and set off. Nate and Ana raced across the large empty room, which contained chairs and candlestick holders strewn randomly about the floor.
The palace had clearly been sealed shut and it did not seem to have been breached.
The large chamber contained more bodies, covered in a thick layer of dust. These looked better-preserved, with thicker skin and features that were more identifiable.
They sat on carpets that had decayed with time.
Perhaps these were the royal attendees and the upper class of society, hunkered in the palace, praying futilely to their gods to save them.
Their vacant eye sockets seemed to follow the pair as they moved through the deathly-quiet hall, which had now become a tomb, and it gave Nate a sense of unease.
When they reached the other side, a large throne came into view. It appeared to be made of gold and inlaid with jewels, much like the doors outside, and was sitting atop steps of silver so as to rise above the room. And on the throne was a seated figure.
“Look,” Ana said hauntedly, staring up at the looming specter.
The body of a large man, now shriveled by time the same as the rest, sat slumped over the throne.
A fragile arm hung loosely off an armrest that was carved out of gold into the shape of a lion’s head.
Though Nate couldn’t see his face, a golden cuirass adorned his torso, tarnished and covered with dust, above which long wisps of beard hair dangled.
On the first step down was a conically shaped crown, thin pressed gold woven together with vibrantly colored cloths that had all but disintegrated, save a few patches. It looked beautiful and fragile.
“I guess the king did make it,” Nate remarked.
“Who is it?” Ana asked in awe.
“There’s no telling. It could be Shaddad, it could be a successor. Only a thorough excavation might be able to determine.”
“The room continues,” Ana said, looking past the dead monument of royalty. Nate followed her gaze.
Behind the oversized throne was another, smaller chamber.
This one contained several bronze doors that were devoid of any elaborate decorations and all sealed shut with thick locks the size of Nate’s fist. Nate immediately identified them as iron locks, turned reddish brown with rust due to iron oxidation.
He knew they would be extremely brittle after thousands of years of corrosion.
As he walked over and hit one with the butt of his flashlight, it all but disintegrated as it fell away. Gently, he pushed the door open.
The inside was dark, and he once again needed the light from the SureFire to look around. It contained numerous chests, shelves, and baskets. He opened the first chest and was stunned. Inside was an assortment of precious gemstones, the contents of which must have been worth tens of millions.
“Oh my God,” Ana said next to him, covering her mouth with her hand.
Nate moved to the next one. Silver and gold pieces. There were at least a hundred similar containers in the room. Additionally, the shelves were lined with golden statues and lamps. It was a treasure vault, the contents of which were nearly immeasurable.
“There must be billions of dollars in wealth down here,” Ana said in awe.
“At least,” Nate agreed. “And that’s just in monetary value, not taking into consideration the historical value.”
He crossed to a table that was stacked with clay tablets and picked one up to examine it.
“Cuneiform,” he said, his eyes wide.
“Can you read it?” Ana asked. He could.
“It’s a list. A tribute. It details weights of silver and gold. It’s from… the Kingdom of Dilmun.”
“Dilmun?”
“It was an ancient kingdom in the area of modern-day Bahrain,” Nate said absently as he scanned the room. “From about three thousand to eight hundred BCE. The area was an important source of copper, and it was said the people there never grew old or sick.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Ana said.
“Some people believe it was the inspiration for the story of the Garden of Eden.” He set the tablet down and shone the light farther down the room. It was long and narrow, and continued for perhaps fifty meters before stopping.
“No way out here,” he said.
They backtracked and exited the room. There were several similar rooms to their right and left.
They quickly destroyed the locks and checked them all, being equally stunned and disappointed.
None contained an exit, though all held similar quantities of valuables.
Nate checked his watch, the hands of his Omega glowing in the dim light.
They needed to head back and meet up with the others.
When they arrived Wally and Shane were already there.
“Find anything?” Shane asked.
“Only a few trillion dollars in valuables, but no exit. You?”
“No, just lots of rooms,” Shane said. “Bedrooms, kitchens, other boring stuff that would probably fascinate you. No exit, though. The way is blocked. Caved in with sand.”
“Shit. Wally?”
“Maybe,” he replied. “There’s a river of sorts that may have something on the other side.”
“A river?” Nate asked.
“Yeah, mate, you’re going to have to see it to believe it. Come on.” They moved out after him.
“Hey, were you serious about that treasure?” Shane asked as they walked. Nate grinned at him but didn’t answer.
They hurried through several hallways and antechambers lined with statues, columns, and ornate fixtures, as well as a few ancient corpses.
As they moved closer, Nate’s nostrils began to sting from a sharp, acrid smell.
It grew stronger, transforming from one of rust soaked in vinegar to a rotten egg stench.
Eventually, the hallway dipped down and ran right into the river Wally had described.
It was strange that the water didn’t move, and Nate instantly recognized it as the source of the sulfur smell that hit him in the face as he approached. He pulled his scarf over his mouth and stared at the viscous black liquid that appeared to be menacingly eating the hallway.
“Oil!” Ana said. “It’s a natural oil reserve.” She looked out over the sea of black as Nate shone the light. The beam from the flashlight disappeared far off in the distance, yet the oil field continued. “And it must be enormous!”
“But it doesn’t provide us with an exit,” Shane said dryly.
“Maybe not out of the cave, but perhaps away from whoever is coming after us,” Ana said. “Most oil is stored in porous rock. What we’re looking at is probably seepage, no more than a foot or so deep. We should be able to walk it.”
A rifle shot rang out from outside, followed by a second, and then a third. Soon, multiple shots were cracking off in the distance and it began to sound like a proper gunfight.
“Tim,” Nate said, and began to move back toward the entrance but stopped in his tracks.
“Ana!” he yelled suddenly. “Look out!”