"Robert Doherty - Area 51 - The Sphinx" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doherty Robert)

тАЬHow do you know there is a body, then?тАЭ
The Arab shrugged. тАЬEither you trust my knowledge or you are wasting your
time, Englishman.тАЭ He pointed at the scarred face above them. тАЬThe nose was
destroyed by cannon fire. Foolish infidels.тАЭ
тАЬI heard it was Napoleon himself who directed that shot when he was here
with his army.тАЭ
The Arab spit into the sand. тАЬYour ears have heard a lie. It was the
Turks over a hundred years before Napo-

-4-

leon who did that damage. There are many false stories concerning the Sphinx and
the pyramids."
"And you know the truth?"
"I know some truths, Mr. Burton."

Richard Francis Burton pulled his hood back as he peered up at the
ancient monument. The Englishman's face was a terrible sight in the dimness, as
scarred as that of the Sphinx. There was a jagged red wound on each side of his
upper jaw where a spear had been thrust through less than three months before
and the healing had not yet finished. Scraggly, rough beard surrounded the
incomplete scar, the dark and swarthy face almost matching that of his Arab
counterpart.
The Englishman's voice was low and harsh, the inside of his mouth having
also suffered from the wound. As he spoke, small amounts of pus and blood oozed
out of the holes on either side of his face, unnoticed by him in his excitement.
"My dear Kaji, I am the only European to have been in the holy cities of Mecca
and Medina. I have read documents there written in the ancient tongues and seen
by no other westerner. I have stood in the shadow of the Himalayas, traveled
across the deserts of Arabia, traversed to the Upper Nile and beyond the first
cataracts.
"There is much more I want to see before I die -- the true source of the
Nile, the mines and treasures of King Solomon, the church that is rumored to
hold the Ark of the Covenant, the Mountains of the Moon that are hidden in the
mists."
"Some of those things and places are myths," Kaji said. He pulled his own
hood back, revealing the lined face of an old man, and a bald, wrinkled scalp.
He had a large, hook nose, and his eyes-were black stones in deep-set sockets.
"No, I don't think so," Barton replied. "I have heard of mysteries on the
plateau beyond what we see here.

-5-

Hidden marvels. The whispers and ancient writings tell of a chamber under the
Sphinx. A chamber of knowledge. Of truth. It is said to be the Hall of Records
from the ancient and lost land of Atlantis. My quest has led me to you as one
who knows the ways of the Plateau. I will not rest until I see this chamber."
Kaji's dark eyes regarded the foreigner. "Go back to England. What you
seek is perilous. Sometimes it is better not to know the truth. The truth is a
very, very dangerous thing."