Part 5 (1/2)
We stopped that evening by the banks of the river, near a heel and a well-trodden pathway leading down to the water It looked as though it would be safe from crocodiles, for there was too much human activity The hippo Nebaed
Just at sunset, we clambered over the side of the boat to swim In the past year I had beco slowly past us as it made its unhurried way to the sea; we floated little reed boats on it and then tried to outswi back up took all our strength We played hiding ga the evil Seth in the papyrus fishers in the process The whir of their wings felt like gigantic fans as they fleay
Once again ere on our way before dawn, and before the day was over we had come to the place where all the branches of the Nile knitted the sun-Re in his for in the west--bathed the wide bosoold, and as we sailed on it I felt a divine stirring
”We will rest here tonight, and then tomorrow--you will behold the pyramids!” said Nebamun
”I hope I won't be disappointed,” said Olyhts It would be so unbearable if they were not worth the journey So journey again for the sake of the unknown
”Always the Greek,” said Neba in advance that so will not be what it clailory,” Olylory,” Olys as they are, and figure out a way to use the out loud
”Destroy them, you mean,” said Mardian
”I don't think they decide that in advance,” I said ”I think their actions are pure that way--not bound by prior decisions”
”Yes, they just decide each time, independently, to destroy There's no suspense there Look what they did to Carthage--leveled it and sowed the ground with salt”
”But, Olympos, they didn't destroy Greece”
”No, only in spirit”
I laughed ”As if anything could destroy the Greek spirit! You are hardly spiritless!”
”So of the Greek spirit survives around the world, and a little may even have seeped into some Romans, but--as truly Greek has perished Except in Alexandria, which has more of the Greek spirit than Athens itself now”
”All things pass away,” said Nebamun ”Except the pyra on the boat, I ake Exciteht; now that I was on the brink of seeing the pyra expectation We were famous the world over for our enormous monuments and statues, the size of which iants, to have created them and set them up They made us seee or power
But when it came down to it, what secrets did we possess? And of what use would they be against Roht still reside in Egyptians today--how did that help against Roe machines, Roman catapults?
Only the power of the Gods could stand against them I knew that even then, O Isis Only you, and Amun, and Osiris And yet they they had Jupiter, and Herculeshad Jupiter, and Hercules
In the fresh old of sunshi+ne, thin and without heat, we sailed up the Nile, looking to the western bank for our first glireen of the Delta fields had been replaced by a narrower ribbon of green on either side of the river, and just beyond that, as if soolden sand lay flat and expressionless, like the face of a God, stretching into eternity beyond our eyesight
The sun rose higher; the air on the horizon shi+ht and flashed Three of the in the sun
”Look!” cried Mardian ”Look! Look!”
At first they seee, or we could not have seen the closer, they shrank into just large buildings, like the Lighthouse As we , and the pyramids were framed behind farmers with donkeys and carts, they see almost ordinary
We hired donkeys to take us the three or so lad ere to have done so, for as the sun rose higher and there was no shade anywhere, the sands heated to a foot-burning teolden sea of sand to what looked like piles of exactly the same material, except that the corners were very sharp There was no wind, just the stillness and the heat
The pyrarew until they seemed to fill the sky; and when at last we stood at the base of one and looked up, it seemed entirely possible that the tip touched the sun I kno that it looked like a ered me I knew only flatness, only the horizontal--the sht, wide streets of Alexandria, the level fields surrounding the river--and this , I could not understand
The polished stones glea the sun like an amber mirror It was hard, vast, i, detail, , ledge--just this sloping, shi+ning ra into the sky I felt dizzy The heat, rising fro down froht erous to remain there The pyramid wanted to do us harm, strike us down
”Shade!” I said ”Is there no shade anywhere?”
The sun was aliant structures cast no shadows
Nebaave thanks that he had thought of them ”There is shelter under the chin of the Sphinx,” he said ”We can wait there”
He mounted his donkey and set out toward the Sphinx its head peering above the sand We should have felt the same awe and fear in its presence, but it seemed almost friendly in comparison to the pyramids It offered us shelter, and it looked like a person, and it did not house anything long dead and hostile
We spread out our blankets on the sand between the creature's paws and kept the parasols over our heads There was little talking; it was as if the vast silence of the place forbade it We could see a raised causeway off to one side, and kneas an abandoned road to a pyra of it But no one walked it now
We watched the day pass from under the shadow of the Sphinx Occasionally a black shape would fly through the deep blue sky--a vulture Or the sands woulddeeper to escape the heat But other than that, there was no rip of death
I wondered who lay inside the pyramids, and as there with them There must surely be jewelry, food, books, and instruments Somewhere in that utter darkness and isolation in the heart of the pyras of stars and Nut, Goddess of the sky, as if to fool the dead Pharaohs into believing they lay outdoors under the night sky, rather than i air for eternity
The pyrae color At noon they had been almost white, but that softened to a tan and then, as the sun sank lower-- Atue Little creatures-- lizards, snakes,places all around us We also eed froain Now great, long shadows stretched on one side, and the slant of the light showed all the irregularities of the surfaces Here and there the stones were cru away at their fabric Even they, the ainst the relentless en sun picked out the pebbles and ripples of the sands all around, showing the pyramids to lie not in a featureless fra is invisible except under certain light conditions
The sky was pink and purple, a twisted ht red spot at the horizon A breeze suddenly sprang up out of nowhere, waro death
”Corows dark very quickly, and we should not be here when the light fades” He hopped on his donkey with surprising speed
What would the pyraainst darkness?
I wanted to stay But I was young, andis ever the same twice I expected that the journey back would be exactly like the one co And for a while it was--the same riverbanks, the same canals, the same clumps of date palms But as we neared Alexandria and saw the white towers of the city walls blinking in the sun,an unusual amount of movement, and crowds of people Nebamun called out, ”What's the news?” as we approached the dock
”Cleopatra's dead!”
Although I kneas not I, it is chilling to hear the death of someone with your name announced so nonchalantly
”Poisoned!” cried another man on the dock ”I'm sure of it!”
”Where is Berenice?” asked Nebamun
”In the palace Where else should she be?”
”She hasn't fled, if that's what you're asking,” his coht well have to One of the other children already has--the younger Cleopatra They're out looking for her everywhere The Ro”
”The Romans? What Romans?” I cried