“Don’t worry about it. If I hadn’t seen him with my own eyes, I might not have believed it myself. By the way, are you okay? Being dizzy isn’t a good sign.”
“I’m fine. Thankfully, it didn’t last long.”
“I think you’re hallucinating.” Carmen elbowed his side.
Zane laughed. “I wonder if there are people living down here. You’re heard the stories before… people isolated and yet surviving for centuries without being discovered.”
“Ordinarily, that might make sense, but in this case, his attire didn’t fit.” She walked in silence for a moment, debating whether or not to share all the details. At this point, what did she have to lose? He said he believed her. She looked at him. “Zane, he was wearing a suit like people wore back in the eighteen hundreds. I know you think I’ve gone stark raving—”
Zane held up a hand. “You saw what you saw. I believe you. We just need to figure out who he is and why he’s down here.”
Carmen was about to respond when she realized the others had stopped ahead, training their beams on something. As Carmen approached, she saw a stone box resting atop a mortared stone foundation. It looked like a coffin, but it was much longer than any coffin she’d ever seen.
“A tomb,” Emily said.
“It’s actually a sarcophagus, which contains the remains of the dead,” Amanda explained.
Emily shot her a look. “Isn’t that the same thing as a tomb?”
“Actually, a tomb would be the building or vault housing the burial containers.” She played her beam down its length. “I’ve seen quite a few of these over the years but never one this large.”
“You can’t think of anything that might explain the size?” Carmen asked. “Maybe there’s more than one person inside.”
“Not typically. A burial container of this size is highly unusual.” Amanda ran her hand along the top. “The only way to know for sure would be to move this off and see what’s inside.”
“Why don’t we all give it a push?” Emily asked.
“Too heavy,” Amanda said. “We’d need a crane to lift that off.”
“Thankfully, we have a crane…Sort of.” Zane nodded at Keiko. “Think you can move it?”
She sized it up for a moment. “Yes, I believe so.”
“Have at it,” Zane said.
Keiko stepped to the center and rested her hands on the slab cover. Carmen heard the hydraulics whine as Keiko pushed. If anyone could get it off, it would be her. According to her specs, she had the strength of six men.
Initially, the slab resisted the humanoid’s efforts. Was it too heavy even for Keiko’s strength? Then, just when it seemed the humanoid might be about to give up, the sound of stone-on-stone grating came forth. The top began to move.
After she pushed it half way across, Zane held up a hand. “Stop.”
Everyone pressed forward with flashlights. Amanda gasped at the contents. There, spread out along the bottom, was the largest skeleton Carmen had ever seen.
“Good heavens,” Emily said.
“I’m guessing that’s the center for the Bashan basketball team,” Zane said.
Carmen moved her beam up the giant’s leg. The femur had the girth of a baseball bat. The rib cage was so large a child could probably curl up inside. The head was equally impressive. The cranium was the size of a melon, and the enormous eye sockets, bulging frontal bone, and heavy brow gave it a menacing appearance. Carmen shuddered to think what this man must have looked like alive.
Emily was looking at something beyond the skull. “Guys, check it out.”
Carmen moved closer, adding her beam to the others. A gold crown twinkled in the cones of light. It lay on its side, having fallen off the skull at some point. Carmen leaned over and studied it. Intricate designs were carved on its surface, and the gold encrusted jewels. Some of the precious stones glistened with colors she’d never seen before.
“A king,” Amanda said. “The question is, ‘king of what state?’”
“I think I may have the answer,” Emily said.
Everyone looked around, unable to locate her. Finally, Carmen pointed to a glow at the end of the sarcophagus. When they arrived, they found Emily on her knees, illuminating three lines of letters engraved in the stone.
“What is it?” Zane asked her.
“I don’t know.”
Amanda lowered next to Emily. Her eyes narrowed as she ran her fingers across the surface. “The letters are mostly worn, but I can see enough to tell it’s Hebrew.”
“Don’t you read Hebrew?” Carmen asked.
“I have some knowledge of it, but I can’t read this.”
“Let me see it,” Keiko said.
Amanda scooted over, and Keiko lowered down beside her. The humanoid studied the script for several minutes. “I can only read the first line. The rest is too worn.”
“And what does the first line say?” Amanda asked.
Keiko ran a finger from right to left. “Here lies Og, King of Bashon.”
Amanda’s eyes widened. “Are you sure that’s what it says?”
“Yes.”
Carmen thought the name sounded familiar — very familiar — but she couldn’t quite place where she’d heard it before. “So he’s a king?”
“Not just any king.” Amanda beamed. “He was a Nephilim giant.”
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Amanda stood and stared at the sarcophagus as though seeing it for the first time. “Og sheds light on the whole thing.”
“Sheds light on what?” Zane asked.
“This city, everything. Let’s go back to the beginning. The Book of Enoch tells us the fallen angels descended on Mount Hermon. Shortly afterward, they took human females as wives and produced giant offspring known as the Nephilim. This was an act of abomination to God, and one of the reasons he brought the worldwide flood was to clean up the tainted gene pool.”
Amanda pulled out her phone and searched for something. “In the same chapter, we also find a very interesting tidbit of information about the Nephilim. Verse four reads, ‘The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward.’” She looked up. “That means they were present even after the flood.”
“How can that be?” Emily asked. “Weren’t they destroyed by the flood?”
“Presumably, the ones from the initial incursion would have been destroyed, yes. We can only infer the fallen angels continued to commit the acts post-flood, producing more Nephilim. Or perhaps, a few survived the flood. We’re not told.
“What we do know is that giants were present after the flood. I’m sure all of you are familiar with the stories. For example, I know you remember the account of Moses sending spies into Canaan. When those spies came back, they reported seeing giants there. In fact, the giants were so large the spies said they felt like grasshoppers in their sight. And who can forget the story of David and Goliath? Goliath was also a giant.”
Carmen listened with interest. The subject of the Nephilim had also come up on a recent Delphi operation in the Amazon rainforest. She wasn’t present for most of that operation, but she knew about the mountain temple the operatives discovered there. Amanda believed the temple might have been built by the Nephilim because statues had been erected in honor of the fallen angels. Unfortunately, the temple and all other evidence had been destroyed by a massive explosion.
Amanda continued. “So we know Nephilim giants were present after the flood. That brings us back to Bashan, the northern region of Israel. The Books of Numbers and Deuteronomy both tell us God sent Moses to conquer the area that included Bashan due to the continued presence of Nephilim tribes, and in one of those battles, the forces of Moses killed King Og.” Amanda patted the sarcophagus for emphasis. “Guess what? Og was a Nephilim — or at least a descendant of Nephilim.”