Chapter 836: Underground Mastaba

The sun sets, but the world does not fall into darkness.

Beside the campfire, Bifang was cutting tree sticks, peeling off the wood chips layer by layer, and then poured them into a cylindrical bark container.

After tamping the layer of wood chips, Bi Fang picked through the campfire and selected several intact pieces of charcoal. After cooling, he crushed them and poured them into it.

After multiple layers and multiple productions, a simple disinfection mask is completed.

The fat in the ostrich meat was boiled into grease. Bi Fang tied a piece of hemp rope tightly to half a wooden stick, then soaked it in it. After the rope absorbed enough oil, he inserted it into the bonfire.

The fire snake wound up, and within a moment, a torch head was completed, and the blazing flames illuminated the surrounding area brightly.

After extinguishing the bonfire on the spot with water, Bi Fang came to the dark entrance of the cave.

The firelight illuminated the surroundings of the cave entrance, but made the cave itself even darker, like a black hole that preyed on people, which was a little scary.

Bi Fang, who put on a gas mask, was still not in a hurry to enter. He first placed the torch in front of the cave entrance and waited for about a quarter of an hour. During this period, he went deeper and deeper until the entire torch was inserted into the cave.

"If it can burn, it means there is oxygen inside. There is no violent combustion, which means there is no flammable gas inside. It is safe to bring a torch in."

Bi Fang briefly explained.

[Another small detail]

[Thin, really too thin]

[I doubt your swearing, and there is sufficient evidence (dog head)]

Fully prepared, Bi Fang looked at the cave illuminated by torches, lay down, and crawled in little by little.

The cave itself is not big, the diameter exposed on the surface is even less than half a meter, and it is difficult to enter without getting down.

Orange light illuminates the passage, and every square inch is filled with thick gravel, the remnants of what was originally poured in.

【feel a little scared】

[After watching too many horror movies, I always feel like something will pop out in front of me]

[It would be most disturbing if a rattlesnake or something jumped out at this time]

[Fang Shen: I thank you]

In the deep cave, Bi Fang felt the inclination angle of the corridor and placed a mark every three meters.

"The inclination angle is about 30 degrees. We can judge how many meters we have advanced by making marks, and then calculate our depth."

"Now, we have sunk about five meters, which shows that this ruins is much larger than we imagined, and it is most likely not an undiscovered pyramid."

Bi Fang lowered his voice. It was quite hot inside and he was wearing a gas mask. His breathing was not smooth, making him breathless.

The surroundings of the corridor also began to change. It was no longer entirely gravel, but mixed with a lot of flint, and even complete huge stones.

Moreover, the size of the passage also changed. Bi Fang was able to move from exploring on his stomach to squatting. However, squatting was too strenuous, so he still chose to crawl.

[Why it can’t be a pyramid]

[The signal of this drone is really good]

【High quality Tan Ge nb】

"Because the shape of all pyramids is fixed, the length of the square side at the base of the pyramid multiplied by two, when divided by the height of the pyramid, is approximately equal to 3.14, which is π. They are all proportional."

"Judging from the size and depth of what we have discovered so far, if it is really a pyramid, then the height of this ruins is at least more than ten meters. However, after I entered through the passage, the total descent height was less than five meters."

"This means that more than half of this 'pyramid' has been cut off. The probability of this is very, very small. We can't imagine what it has experienced before to be destroyed like this."

The pyramid is very sacred in the eyes of the Egyptians. It is not only a symbol of royal power, but also linked to religion and theocracy. In various wars in the West, invaders may destroy the capital left by the previous dynasty, but rarely Will destroy churches unless they are pagans.

Even as Bi Fang mentioned before, in the 14th century AD, Sultan Badr al-Din Hassan of the Bahri Dynasty removed the surface limestone on the pyramid in order to build a temple, but he did not think of disturbing the entire pyramid.

The pyramid has been eroded by wind and sand for thousands of years. This erosion is all-round. It is impossible to completely erode more than half of it, leaving only a complete base. Moreover, the wind and sand are not so strong.

Climb along the passage until you have dropped about six meters. The slope of the corridor ahead suddenly increases. In just a few meters, it changes from a small slope of 30 degrees to a super steep slope of more than 60 degrees.

The slope was more than 60 degrees, and it was impossible to stand without stairs. Bifang supported the wall and began to accelerate down.

The depth of the slide this time was beyond everyone's expectations. The slope became steeper and steeper, and finally it was almost a 90-degree vertical drop. If the passage was not narrow enough and could be supported by the legs, he would have almost fallen.

"Wow!"

A dull sound echoed in the ruins, and a large amount of fine sand fell down with a figure, pattering and jumping.

In the darkness, Bifang, who was holding a torch, fell to the ground, and a large amount of dust rose up, temporarily blinding his vision.

【I'm coming】

【High energy ahead】

[I finally came in. It’s too narrow. If it wasn’t slippery, it would definitely be uncomfortable to go in. 】

【The King of Talkers】

【So dark】

"Finally in."

Bifang, who was wearing a gas mask, slowly stood up from the ground without being choked by the smoke. He patted the sand on his shoulders, then took off his shoes and poured out all the sand.

"I was really shocked just now. I didn't expect the ruins to be so deep."

Bi Fang raised the torch above his head and could still see the dark tunnel. His brief descent allowed him to go more than twenty meters underground.

"The Sahara Desert is mainly composed of rocky Hamada and sandy land. Many sand dunes are more than 180 meters high, with an average height of about 150 meters and the highest even more than 300 meters. Although it is not as deep as the sea, it can completely submerge a city at such a depth. enough."

Holding a torch, walking among the deep ruins.

More than twenty meters deep, there is no light source here. Except for the torch in his hand, everything is pitch black, enough to make any normal person fall into claustrophobia.

[Cao Cao Cao, I can’t handle this environment anymore]

[Every time I see this kind of person holding a torch in the darkness, I would rather not have this torch. It becomes the only light in the darkness, which is particularly eye-catching and feels even more terrifying]

[Plus one, like a moth to a flame, the creature in the shadow likes the light the most (dog head)]

"Tick tock."

The falling water droplets were magnified countless times in the silent environment.

Bi Fang walked forward following the sound, touched the wall next to him, and felt the moisture on his fingertips.

There is thick water vapor in this ruins.

Rubbing the wet gravel on his fingertips, Bifang explained.

"It is very difficult to get water in the Sahara. If you don't find the right location, you won't find water even if you dig tens of meters."

"But we're pretty close to the Nile at this point."

"Geologists had studied windblown sediments, deposits from flowing water, and then, with the help of aircraft radar, were able to see images of bedrock near the Nile."

"By combining data from the space shuttle's topographic survey scans and ground samples, geologists estimate that the Nile once flooded Egypt's Kiseba Depression, forming a giant lake of 42,000 square kilometers, which later became a buried lake. "Ancient river course."

"These paleochannels were periodically activated as river systems during climate warming cycles, and recent algorithmic analysis shows that it ended 6,500 years ago and is still back underground today."

"The research team at that time conducted further investigations and estimated that the river extended for more than 520 kilometers under the desert."

"So it may be related to a larger ancient water system known as the Tamanrasset Valley."

"But it's not necessarily certain. It may not be an underground water system, but the Nile River penetrates here."

The corridor after falling from the ground is much wider and can be fully used for people to walk upright, but they can reach the top with their hands.

The width is about one meter, making it difficult for two people to pass by at the same time, but for Bifang personally, this size is more than enough.

After walking about twenty meters, a corner appeared in front of us.

"There is no fork in the road."

Bi Fang was thoughtful.

“This should be a ‘mastaba’”

[Master Eight? 】

【What is this? 】

[Come on, tell me, did Fang Shen discover something? 】

Bi Fang put the torch close to the corridor wall, which was made of mud and stone and covered with strange and strange patterns.

In the dark environment, it looks particularly strange.

"'Mastaba', a transliteration of Arabic, means stone bench, which was originally used as a residential form in ancient Egypt and later as a tomb form for nobles before the Old Kingdom of Egypt."

"When the pyramids appeared later, this form of burial became common people's tombs. Of course, for common people, those who can afford to build such tombs are at least the wealthy class."

[Before the pyramids? 】

[I thought pyramids had appeared since ancient times]

"Do you think the pyramid appeared from birth? It is just an evolution. The initial foundation is the Mastaba. It is like a pyramid without a spire, only a base."

The original Egyptian tombs were mostly built of mud and stone, in the shape of a trapezoidal hexahedron, and were divided into two parts: an underground tomb and an above-ground sacrificial hall.

There are usually many tombs in tombs, which are not only used to place the bodies of the deceased, but also the bodies of the burial companions.

In addition, there are tombs used to store food, utensils and clothing. After entering the Old Kingdom period, kings began to use pyramids instead of mastabas as the form of burials, and the earliest pyramids evolved from mastabas.

“Archaeological excavations revealed a well-preserved mastaba built during the First Dynasty. The core part is a rectangular pit located under the surface. The pit is divided into five small rooms, and the large center room is used to store the dead. ”

"The four adjacent cubicles are where the deceased's belongings were placed. Above the pit are first nine rows of three vertical cubicles built of mud bricks, and then the outermost layer is covered with sand."

"Look, you guys, we just turned two intersections and happened to surround a small house."

Bi Fang then walked forward and encountered the third intersection. Then he walked forward and happened to see a handful of arrow-shaped gravel left on the ground.

Because he was worried about damaging the ruins, Bi Fang did not carve anything on the wall as a mark. Instead, he grabbed a handful of sand in a bag and sprinkled an arrow on the necessary key parts.

Seeing the arrow on the ground, the audience suddenly realized.

From this point of view, Bi Fang did go around in a circle just now, and this should be the small room.

"If it is a pyramid, there won't be small rooms like this inside, but only a few tombs followed by straight passages. It is impossible to build small rooms inside."

"However, a room is this big, and the person buried here must be an important person."

Now that he knows where this place is, Bifang is no longer so nervous and carefully observes the paintings on the wall.

"Anyone who knows a little about ancient Egypt must know the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians."

"They believed that after death, if the body of the soul was preserved and not decayed, it would be resurrected and immortalized in another world three thousand years later."

"So from the early dynasty to the later dynasties, the Egyptians worked to develop better and more complex methods of burying corpses. The main purpose of placing the dead was to protect the corpse from external harm."

"The earliest method of burying corpses by the ancient Egyptians was to dig a simple pit in the sand, and put the corpse into the tomb together with personal belongings or useful items for the afterlife."

"Due to contact with the dry desert, the corpse was naturally preserved, but it was still threatened by some potential factors."

"Therefore, the mastaba came into being to protect the human body from wild animals and potential robbers."

"But the mastaba did not protect the human body as naturally as the sand, which led the Egyptians to develop the mummification system through artificial means."

The early pharaohs of Upper Egypt were buried in the Abydos King's Cemetery. The earliest was a basement made of mud bricks, with a roof made of densely packed tree trunks, and the ground and walls covered with wooden boards.

Later, it developed into using stone as a facing and paving, and a small room for tributes was added to the east of the tomb structure.

The tomb was a sand dune blocked by a surrounding wall, and the tombs of family members and dignitaries were arranged on the outer layer of the surrounding low walls, forming an early mastaba tomb.

Bifang walked in the corridor, looking at the scale of this mastaba.

"Such a large scale must not be early, it should be quite close to the era of using pyramids as tombs."

"This kind of dusk snow structure may come from Mesopotamian ideas, because this civilization was building similar buildings and structures at the same time."

[Awesome, Fang Shen is really well-versed in ancient and modern times! ! ]

[Write a book, Fang Shen, I think you can do it]

[Want to read]

[Want to read plus one]

[Wait, since it is a tomb, then there are a lot of burial objects (dog heads)]

[Fuck, isn't that getting rich? ]

[Fang Shen also dug out a golden mask! ]

Hearing that there might be treasures, many viewers immediately became excited and urged Bifang to find it.

Bifang was speechless.

"Even if I find it, it won't belong to me. I'm not a robber."